Tokyo International Airport, commonly known as Haneda Airport, has long been the main domestic airport in Tokyo. Located on the shores of Tokyo Bay, there has been an airfield on this site since 1931.

Until Narita Airport opened in 1978, Haneda served both domestic and international markets, but reverted to being an almost exclusively domestic airport when international traffic moved to Narita. The exception was for Taiwanese Airlines which, due to the political situation with mainlined China, continued to use Haneda Airport.

Limited international services returned in the early 21st century as “charter flights” between Seoul and Tokyo. On going troubles with land requisition and difficulty in expanding the runways made the government look at Haneda again as an international hub, and with the expansion out into Tokyo bay of the 3rd and 4th runways, Haneda was able to operate as a 24 hour airport.

A new International Terminal was opened in 2010. With 4 runways, the airport is generally able to maintain full operations in most weather conditions, unlike Narita which can be affected by strong crosswinds on their 2 parallel runways.
Initially flights were only allowed during the night time hours, when there was little domestic travel, but in 2013 the government allowed daytime slots for international flights, and expansion of the International Terminal in 2014 allowed for more convenient connections.

Tokyo is currently the 4th busiest airport in the world with over 63 million passengers per year, but it is still dominated by the domestic market.

Haneda is much closer to downtown Tokyo, with the Monorail providing services in about 20 minutes to Hamamatsu Cho on the Tokyo Yamanote Loop Line, and Keikyu Rail Co. operating a rail line service to Shinagawa Station on the same JR Line taking about the same duration.

Note that the monorail has 3 stations at the airport (Terminal 2, Terminal 1, and International), while the Keikyu Line only has 2 (Domestic and International).

The current terminal 1 opened in 1993, and was named “Big Bird”. Initially all airlines used the terminal, but it is currently the almost exclusive domain of Japan Airlines (JAL). Skymark airlines and some Star flyer flights also use terminal 1.

Terminal 2 opened in 2004, and saw the relocation of All Nippon Airways (ANA) from terminal 1, along with its subsidiary airlines Air Do, and Solaseed. Some Star Flyer flights also depart from Terminal 2. From March 2020, the plan was for  all ANA international flights to arrive and depart from terminal 2 due to the over crowding at the international terminal, however Covid put this plan on hold and to date all international flights are using Terminal 3.

With the expansion of international flights into Haneda, a purpose build international terminal was finally opened in 2010.

It rapidly became too small for the volume of flights, and an extension was added in 2014.

This only provided a temporary respite as the terminal is still to small to meet demand. The plan was to move all ANA international flights over to terminal 2, but this was put on hold due to Covid. As of this update (June 2023), all international flights are leaving from Terminal 3 still.