Osaka Itami Airport Spotting Information

Introduction

Osaka is the second biggest city in Japan. There are two airport in this area. One is Itami, former international airport, and Kansai, new airport for International and domestic. Itami airport is located Northwest of the city. At this airport you can easily take photos of narrow body airliners, MD-90 for JAS, B737-400 for JEX, which are rare visitor in Tokyo, and also DHC-8-400 and Saab340B for JAC, which you can't see in Tokyo.

How to get there

from Osaka downtown
<Railway Connection>
from Hankyu Railway Umeda station, connected JR Osaka station and Subway Umeda station.
Hankyu Umeda <Hankyu Takarazuka line 13min(Express), 22min(Local) JPY220> Hotarugaike <Osaka Monorail 3min JPY200> Osaka Kuko(airport)
<Bus Connection>
Direct bus service available; Osaka Umeda (30min JPY620), Osaka Namba (30min JPY620), ShinOsaka (25min JPY490), Kyoto (55min JPY1280), Kobe Sannomiya (40min, JPY1,020), Kansai airport (80min JPY1,700), every 10 to 30min
from Kansai Airport
Direct connection Bus (80min JPY1,700) or train connection ( KIX<JR rapid service 61min 1,150>Osaka/Hankyu Umeda<Hankyu Takarazuka line 22min JPY220>Hotarugaike<Osaka Monorail 3min JPY200>ITM)
from Tokyo
<by Air>
20 flights from Tokyo Haneda by ANA, JAL, JAS (60min JPY18,500(O/W), JPY29,000(R/T), JPY10,000 to 13,000(O/W special fare, must buy ticket few days before), maybe you can get cheaper international connection fare at your travel agent)
Also any "Air Pass" (ANA Star Alliance airpass, ANA Vist Japan fare) are available.
<by Shinkansen train to Shin Osaka>
Nozomi super express(2h30min, JPY14,050(O/W), every 20min) and from Shin Osaka 25min bus ride, JPY490. Rail Map
<by JR Bus from Tokyo station>
If you want to save money, you can choose JR night Bus (8h40min, JPY8,610(O/W) JPY15,190(R/T))
You can get the information on JR Bus official site.

#The fares above are for ordinary season.
#If you plan to travel by train, check the price of Japan Rail Pass for JR lines. Maybe you can travel cheaper than by normal ticket.

Airlines and Airliners

Japan Airline; B777-300, B777-200, B767-300, MD90, MD81, MD87
All Nippon Airways; B777-300, B777-200, B767-300, A321, A320, B737-500
Japan Transocean Airlines; B737-400
JAL Express; B737-800, B737-400
ANA Wings; DHC-8-400Q, DHC-8-300Q
Japan Air Commuter; Saab340B, DHC-8-400Q
Fair Link; CRJ100, CRJ200
J-Air; CRJ200

Weather

Spring; March to May; warm but humidity is a little high and air is not so clear except May. The weather is changeable.
Summer; June to August; June to middle of July is rainy season and end of July to August is very hot and high humidity.
Autumn; September to November; September is still hot and the weather is changeable. The middle of October to November are best season for spotting; cool, low humidity and clear.
Winter; December to February. Cold but clear and no snow.

	temperature (degrees centigrade)			total sunny time (hour)	total rainfall (mm)
	average	maximum	minimum	total sunny time (hour)	total rainfall (mm)
Jan	4.7	8.7	0.8	111	44
Feb	5.0	9.1	1.0	130	58
Mar	8.3	12.7	3.9	154	107
Apr	14.0	18.8	9.0	172	115
May	18.8	23.6	13.9	153	148
Jun	22.7	26.9	18.9	108	211
Jul	26.6	30.5	23.2	145	153
Aug	28.0	32.5	24.3	196	105
Sep	23.9	28.1	20.2	143	185
Oct	17.8	22.4	13.5	196	103
Nov	12.3	16.9	7.9	143	69
Dec	7.1	11.5	2.8	133	34

above data is the average of last 30 years

Sunrise & Sunset

date	Sunrise	direction	Sunset	direction
1-Jan	7:05 AM	117.8	4:58 PM	242.3
1-Feb	6:57 AM	110.5	5:27 PM	249.7
1-Mar	6:28 AM	98.9	5:54 PM	261.4
1-Apr	5:46 AM	84.1	6:19 PM	276.1
1-May	5:08 AM	71.1	6:43 PM	289.1
1-Jun	4:46 AM	62.3	7:06 PM	297.8
1-Jul	4:48 AM	60.8	7:15 PM	299.2
1-Aug	5:08 AM	67.1	7:01 PM	292.7
1-Sep	5:30 AM	79.1	6:25 PM	280.7
1-Oct	5:52 AM	93.1	5:43 PM	266.7
1-Nov	6:18 AM	106.8	5:05 PM	253.0
1-Dec	6:46 AM	116.1	4:47 PM	243.8

Map

Where can you take Photographs?

The airport is very friendly for spotter. There are big free observation decks, face to runway, in the terminal building. It opens from early morning to late night. The light condition for runway is good in early morning. In the afternoon you can still take photographs of the airliners spotting gate at there.
I heard there are good spotting point around the airport. Unfortunately I have not been there.

Observation Deck on the main terminal building (This deck is still open) Located 3rd floor of the terminal building. You can go there via stairs or escalator for 4th floor from departure hall (ANA side 3F, JAL and JAS side 2F). Open 8:00am to 10:00pm. Free of charge. It is very hot in summer and no shade, so recommend to ready a broad-brimmed hat.

Timetable

You can get timetable at check in counter for each airlines on 1st. floor.

Runway Operation

Usually RW32L and RW32R are used to avoid noise pollution except heavy tail wind days. All wide body airliners use RW32L and narrow body and turbo prop airliners use RW32R.

Spot Operation

YS-11, Saab340 use open spot in north area of terminal building. MD-90, MD-81 and MD-87 spot north side of pier for JAS. So you can not see them spotting from observation deck. 2nd pier from north are for JAL group and south 2 piers are for ANA group.

Radio

DEL 118.80 GND 121.70 126.20 TWR 118.10 126.20
Kansai APP/RDR 120.45 121.15 124.70 125.50 Kansai DIP 119.50 120.85
GCA 125.10 127.50 134.10 ATIS 128.60

Where do you stay?

Check the next hotel chain site. I usually use the hotels for business trip. The room rate is reasonable except some on special location. Osaka is listed up in Kansai or Kinki area.
Toyoko Inn chain http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/
http://www.sunroute.jp/SunrouteTopHLE.html
http://www.tokyuhotels.co.jp/en/TI/index.html
Washington Hotel chain http://www.wh-rsv.com/english/