New Chitose opened in July 1988 to replace the adjacent Chitose Airport, a joint-use facility which had served passenger flights since 1963. The airport's IATA airport code was originally SPK. This code was later adopted as a city code to refer to both New Chitose and the smaller Okadama Airport in central Sapporo, which handles commuter flights within Hokkaido. New Chitose became Japan's first 24-hour airport in 1994. Services between 10 PM and 7 AM are currently limited to six flights per day due to noise alleviation concerns. Four of these slots are currently used by passenger flights to Tokyo while the other two are used by cargo flights. New Chitose previously had long-haul service to Amsterdam, Cairns and Honolulu. Service to Europe resumed when Finnair launched a new weekly flight to Helsinki from 15th December 2019. International services are mainly for transporting tourists from the rest of Asia and for sightseeing and skiing. The area surrounding gates 0 through 2, on the north end of the main terminal, was a sterile area for international flights until the international terminal opened for service on March 26, 2010. The airport was upgraded with additional private aircraft handling facilities for the 34th G8 summit, held in Hokkaido in 2008. Due to the airport's sharing of air traffic control with Chitose Air Base, daytime civil operations are limited to 32 takeoffs and landings per hour, and operations by certain foreign aircraft are prohibited on Mondays and Thursdays. These restrictions were scheduled to be eased in March 2017. A 2nd terminal is being built roughly doubling the existing terminal and capacity, scheduled to be complete by August 2019.
Airlines and destinations
The airport has a semicircular domestic terminal with eighteen gates, and a smaller international terminal with six gates. Operating hours for international flights at CTS are restricted by the Japanese government in order to avoid interference with JASDF operations at the adjacent air base. As of April 2012, international flights are permitted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from noon to 4 pm, and from 5 pm on Friday through 11:59 pm on Sunday.
On August 5, 2011, Philippine Airlines flight 102, a Boeing 747 was several hours into its Manila to Los Angeles flight, when it made an emergency landing at Sapporo-Chitose after there were reports of smoke in the cabin. The flight landed safely and none of the 449 passengers and crew were injured.
On February 23, 2016, Japan Airlines Flight 3512, a Boeing 737 about to depart Chitose for Fukuoka Airport, was evacuated in the midst of a snowstorm due to smoke in the cabin caused by an engine problem. Three passengers were injured in the evacuation.
