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few years back, we couldn't land, tried 3 times then pilot bricked it and diverted to NRT. Changed crew and waited for it to clear up, then headed north. We were delayed 3 hours. The whole airport, including the ground connections waited. So too the accomodation. When Shin Chitose closes, everybody is affected.

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2004, we sat on the tarmac (in the plane, no exit) for up to 3 hours while they waited for the storm to clear, then cleared the runway and de-iced the plane (twice!!). Had a 4 hour "layover" in Tokyo between flights (in from CTS and out to BNE) cut to just an hour and a rush across town between airports.

 

Still, who's to complain about a heap of the bets quality marching powder (oops, wrong thread lol ) I meant cold white powder, of course!

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A few years back, can't remember when, friend of mine was traveling to Chitose and timed it the worst possible. He had a nightmare up there, took him best part of 2 days to get there (to Niseko) from Tokyo. Hopefully not too many of those!

 

Not many problems getting here in Gunma - having said that, the Shinkansen system was at a standstill this morning I hear due to some system error or something. Hope thats up back going now. Sure is bad timing if it isn't!

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Once I couldn't even get to Chisose to catch a flight because a blizzard shut down JR and the expressways! The airport of course was shut down too, so no real loss. I called JAL and got my reservation switched to the next day's identical flight. When I went to the airport the next day, it looked like a homeless village or disaster relief shelter with people sleeping everywhere. Seems like a lot of people in Japan don't book in advance for kokunai flights, so only about half-a-dozen standby fliers made it onto my flight. I think it took around three days to get the last person to their destination after that snowstorm!

 

Another time, I was heading overseas, and the pilot on the CTS-NGO flight got cold feet in the snowstorm and stopped on the taxiway for the snowplows to come and clear the runway. The pilot of the Itami-bound flight immediately ahead of us just cranked the throttles and took off anyway (probably a former JASDF F-15 jock)! There were several passengers on board were heading for the same international flight as me, and we only had one hour to make the connection at Chubu. Once the pilot made the decision to abort takeoff, the flight administrators actually called the plane back to the gate and unloaded us. They rebooked me on an early morning flight and a JAL chartered international flight and put me up in the airport hotel overnight with meals. A day late, I landed at 6:30AM, went through customs, immigration, and baggage claim then went directly to a 7:30 meeting!

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