Haneda Airport sees more people than a year ago -NHK WORLD-JAPAN -14 hours ago
Tokyo's Haneda Airport saw many people leaving and arriving on domestic flights on Thursday, the first day of a weeklong spring holiday period.
Airlines say their flights are not as crowded as in usual spring holidays, but that they have more bookings than last year when a coronavirus state of emergency was in effect across the nation.
The current state of emergency covers Tokyo and three western prefectures .
A man in his 40s who said he lives away from his family for a work assignment was going home to Sapporo for the first time since last August. He said he wants to play with his son and relax.
Another passenger in his 50s said he was on a business trip to Kumamoto Prefecture .He said he was worried about the virus so he took a test that proved negative before his departure. The man said the airport looked as usual, with more people than he expected.
All Nippon Airways says it has over 400,000 bookings for domestic flights during the holiday week through next Wednesday. It says the figure is about seven times that of a year earlier, but about 40 percent that of 2019.
An official of ANA Airport Services says the firm is taking through antivirus measures such as disinfection and social distancing .
