Red-letter day as Kansai International Airport celebrates Terminal 1 renovation

New arrivals duty-free shops are just one aspect of an impressively ambitious terminal redevelopment.

Mar 28, 2025 - 11:19

Red-letter day as Kansai International Airport celebrates Terminal 1 renovation

JAPAN. Kansai Airports yesterday (27 March) hosted the grand opening of the Terminal 1 renovation at Kansai International Airport (KIX).

The renovation is designed to boost T1’s international flight capacity and enhance the airside areas and overall passenger experience.

“Through this renovation, we have enhanced passenger convenience and increased our capacity by reconfiguring the layout of the international and domestic areas, expanding the security checkpoint, and enhancing the commercial area after passport control,” Kansai Airports said.

The improvements increase T1’s international passenger capacity to 40 million (departures and arrivals combined) across the entire KIX.

Arrivals duty-free shop opened

This will enable Kansai Airports to accommodate future aviation demand, which is expected to grow with the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

Highlights of the latest round of enhancements include:

• Arrivals duty-free shops opened, along with new commercial areas on the north and south sides of the international security checkpoints.
• The security checkpoints for international flights on the fourth floor have been centralised and expanded.
• Processing capacity has increased from approximately 4,500 to 6,000 people per hour.
• The security checkpoint area has expanded from approximately 3,500sq m to 6,300sq m.
• The common lounge for international passengers has opened, providing a spacious atmosphere with more effective use of the limited space.
• KIX Lounge Premium opened: approximately 800sq m with 143 seats.
• KIX Lounge Kansa opened: approximately 2,970sq m with 658 seats
• Immigration relocated from the second floor to the third floor, improving efficiency and creating a more open space.

These changes follow a series of earlier enhancements. The relocated domestic area opened on 26 October 2022, with centralised domestic security checkpoints. At the same time six new airside stores were added and a new lounge for ANA and JAL lounge users opened.

On 5 December 2023, a new international departure area opened. This saw the north and south emigration areas consolidated into a single central facility.

Additionally, as reported by The Moodie Davitt Report on location, a 2,500sq walk-through duty-free shop, one of the largest in Japanese airports, opened.

A spacious Japan-themed waiting area, ‘PLAZA’, was introduced while four distinct mood areas were created with shops and restaurants.