History
Oroku Aerodrome (小禄飛行場), an Imperial Japanese Navy airfield, opened in 1933. The base was taken over by the United States in 1945 and was renamed Naha Airport (那覇飛行場).
Pan American World Airways and Northwest Orient began service to Naha in 1947. Southwest Airlines (now Japan Transocean Air) began inter-island operations from Naha in 1967.
Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972. In 1982, Naha Airport was transferred from US military control to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
The airport was a popular connecting point between Taipei and Shanghai prior to the opening of direct flights between mainland China and Taiwan.
The basic and detailed design engineering works in addition to the later construction management phase of the main passenger terminal were awarded in the 1990s in part to the Japan Branch of the American design-build engineering company, The Austin Company, which joined Japanese firms in a joint venture design consortium.
Read more about this topic: Naha Airport
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