Flying to Tokyo on a budget
Tokyo is a major hub served by 2 airports in Japan. Across the city's airports, around 28 airlines operate roughly 443 documented route pairings, connecting Tokyo to approximately 38 direct destinations worldwide. For budget travellers, having multiple airports in one city is usually good news. Secondary airports tend to host the lowest-cost carriers and the cheapest fares, but the trade-off is a slower (and sometimes pricier) ground transfer to the city centre.
The cheapest combination of base fare plus ground transport almost never lives at the same airport. As a rule of thumb, fly into the most-served airport when you have luggage, late arrival times, or a fixed work meeting. Fly into the cheapest secondary airport when you are travelling light, have flexible plans, and are arriving mid-day with the buses still running. We break down the airports below in order of route volume, so you can quickly see which carriers and destinations each one specialises in.
Airports serving Tokyo
Narita International Airport (NRT)
Japan · 286 routes · 25 destinations
Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)
Japan · 157 routes · 25 destinations
Tips for landing in Tokyo cheap
- Compare airports before booking. The headline-cheapest fare into the secondary airport is sometimes wiped out by a EUR 20+ ground transfer to the city centre.
- Check the last public-transport time. Late arrivals can force a pricey taxi if you miss the bus or train; verify against the inbound landing time, not the scheduled.
- Pre-book ground transport for arrival. A pre-paid bus ticket bought online is usually the cheapest predictable option; airport-counter taxi rates can run two to three times the metered fare.
- If you have multiple airports, fly in and out of different ones. Use Google Flights' multi-city search to capture the cheapest combination of one-ways across two airports.
- Watch for currency exchange traps. The airport bureaux are the worst place to change money; withdraw from a major-bank ATM in arrivals instead.
Top destinations from Tokyo
| Code | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| ICN | Seoul | South Korea |
| BKK | Bangkok | Thailand |
| LAX | Los Angeles | United States |
| SIN | Singapore | Singapore |
| HNL | Honolulu | United States |
| CTS | Sapporo | Japan |
| PEK | Beijing | China |
| HKG | Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
| OKA | Okinawa | Japan |
| FUK | Fukuoka | Japan |
| YVR | Vancouver | Canada |
| LHR | London | United Kingdom |
| TPE | Taipei | Taiwan |
| ORD | Chicago | United States |
| CAN | Guangzhou | China |
| MNL | Manila | Philippines |
| JFK | New York | United States |
| KHH | Kaohsiung | Taiwan |
| PUS | Busan | South Korea |
| DLC | Dalian | China |
Airlines flying from Tokyo
American Airlines (AA)
United States
United Airlines (UA)
United States
Delta Air Lines (DL)
United States
US Airways (US)
United States
China Southern Airlines (CZ)
China
China Eastern Airlines (MU)
China
Air China (CA)
China
Air France (AF)
France
Lufthansa Cargo (LH)
Germany
Alitalia (AZ)
Italy · Budget
Air Canada (AC)
Canada
British Airways (BA)
United Kingdom
All Nippon Airways (NH)
Japan
Air India Limited (AI)
India
Japan Airlines Domestic (JL)
Japan
Malaysia Airlines (MH)
Malaysia
Korean Air (KE)
Republic of Korea
Ozark Air Lines (OZ)
United States