The Business Aviation Gate at Haneda

Why it is on the list

At Haneda, the business aviation gate is at Terminal 3; Terminals 1 and 2 have none.¹ The gate has its own check-in counter, lobby, lounge, security checkpoint, customs, immigration and quarantine, a porte-cochère and temporary parking spots, and it runs 24 hours.¹ Passengers keep to their own route and their own customs and immigration desks, which shortens the time at immigration and keeps them private.¹

It serves international business-jet flights only, unless TIAT approves another use in advance.² On a scheduled flight it is the wrong choice: take the International Escort Service at Haneda instead, in the same terminal.

How to get it

The gate is used through a ground handler; the terminal lists twelve at Terminal 3, among them JAL Business Aviation, ANA, Universal Aviation and Japan Aviation Service, each with its own phone and email.¹ JAL Business Aviation's ground handling desk answers on +81 3 5460 5868 and at jalba@jal.com, weekdays 9:30 to 17:00, closed at weekends and on national holidays; it also arranges the charter itself, paid in full in advance.¹³

The handler applies to the terminal company, TIAT, through the gate's own website at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure or arrival; a diverted flight applies as soon as the landing is decided.² The private lounge is open to a flight only if TIAT approves it in that application, so have the handler ask for it.² The gate charges JPY 400,000 per departure or arrival for up to 20 passengers, and JPY 20,000 for each passenger beyond that.² During a technical stop the waiting room is JPY 300,000 for up to 20 passengers, JPY 15,000 for each one beyond, for two hours; each further two hours costs the same again.² An operator new to the gate pays ahead, by the day before the flight, for its first month.² A use cancelled before the customs and immigration checks costs nothing, and a prepaid fee may be refunded or kept for a later date; once the checks are done it is charged in full.² One exception: if arriving passengers already rode TIAT's bus from the aircraft or waited in the arrival waiting room, a cancellation still costs the technical-stop fee.²

Departing passengers may shop at the terminal's duty-free stores if the handler applies in advance; its staff walk them there and on to the aircraft, and they do not come back through the gate.²

Discretion

Passengers go through the gate's own security checkpoint, customs and immigration on arrival and departure gates of their own.¹ Apart from the passengers, only staff of the operator or its ground handler carrying the airport's ID card are let in.² No one may photograph the gate without TIAT's written approval; magazine and internet shoots are refused, and passengers' own pictures may not be posted on social media.² With JAL Business Aviation there is no counter check-in; its staff escort passengers through.³ Whether another flight's passengers can share the lounge at the same hour is not published: ask the handler, at jalba@jal.com, when you book.