On April 18, Kobe Airport in Japan’s Kansai region officially launched its first international flights.
The first airlines to commence services include Korean Air, Juneyao Airlines, Starlux Airlines, and EVA Air.
Among them, Juneyao Airlines—drawing significant attention from aviation enthusiasts—selected Shanghai and Nanjing in the Yangtze River Delta as its initial departure points for direct flights to Kobe, operating one daily round-trip flight from each city.
To attract travelers, Juneyao Airlines introduced special incentives for the newly launched routes:
* From April 18 to June 30, passengers flying between Shanghai/Nanjing and Kobe can enjoy an allowance of three free checked bags.
Why did Juneyao Airlines choose Kobe Airport to launch two international routes at once?
In the short term, the airline aims to capture the surge in passenger traffic driven by the Osaka World Expo.
The 2025 Osaka World Expo is expected to attract 28 million visitors. According to the organizers, 119,000 visitors attended the opening day on April 13.
Juneyao Airlines' decision to open new routes to Kobe is aimed at tapping into the peak business and tourism demand generated by the Expo.
Kobe Airport is only about a 40-minute drive from the Osaka World Expo venue and is closer to downtown Osaka than Kansai International Airport.
In the longer term, Chinese outbound tourism to Japan is undergoing a “structural upgrade.”
According to data from Trip.com, nearly 50% of Japan-bound travel visas issued to mainland Chinese tourists in the first seven months of 2024 were for multiple-entry (three-year/five-year) visas—a significant increase compared to around 20% during the same period in 2019.
These higher-frequency travelers are more inclined toward in-depth travel experiences, driving a surge in tourism demand for Japan’s second- and third-tier cities. Juneyao Airlines’ decision to launch routes to Kobe perfectly aligns with this trend.
Facing intense competition on core routes to cities like Osaka and Tokyo, Juneyao Airlines strategically chose to expand into the secondary market by opening two routes from popular Yangtze River Delta cities to Kobe Airport.
Industry observers view Juneyao Airlines’ move to Kobe as a prime example of how the China–Japan aviation market is shifting from “scale expansion” toward “structural optimization,” with secondary-city routes helping to avoid fierce price wars in core markets while stimulating regional tourism economies.
