Getting from New Chitose Airport to the city

A station in the basement

• New Chitose Airport station is directly beneath the airport building. The route from the domestic departure and arrival gates to the ticket gates is entirely indoors.
• In Hokkaido that is not a small thing. Between November and March the alternative to an indoor connection is a bus in the snow.
• JR Hokkaido runs it, and the service is called the "Airport" - Rapid, Limited Rapid and Section Rapid versions of the same train.

The numbers

• Fastest Sapporo to New Chitose Airport: 33 minutes on the Limited Rapid, 37 on the Rapid.
• Typical daytime journey times: Limited Rapid 36 minutes, Rapid 37, Section Rapid 43.
• 163 Airport trains a day.
• Daytime, 09:00 to 16:00: six trains an hour - one Limited Rapid, three Rapid, two Section Rapid. All are first-come first-served on the ordinary cars and all arrive in order, so you take whatever is next.
• From Sapporo, departures are every 3 to 15 minutes. From the airport, roughly every 10.

The reserved car

• Car 4 is "u Seat" for the entire route. It is reserved, so you do not queue and you are guaranteed a seat, and there is space for large luggage.
• It costs 1,000 yen on top of the ordinary fare, or 800 yen if you book the ticketless reserved seat online.
• You can book it from the aircraft over the in-flight wi-fi through JR East's Eki-net, if you have registered.

Late arrivals, and Otaru

• There is a Limited Rapid leaving New Chitose Airport at 23:21 for Teine, put on specifically for late flights. It departs on schedule regardless of whether the flight was late.
• Trains run through Sapporo to Otaru, so the coastal town with the canal is a single ride from the airport.
• IC cards work: Kitaca and the national cards are accepted between Otaru, Sapporo and the airport.

Landing in Hokkaido

• The airport is about 45 km south-east of Sapporo, near the town of Chitose, and it is Hokkaido's front door.
• This is one of the busiest domestic air routes on earth - Tokyo Haneda to New Chitose regularly ranks in the global top five for passengers.
• The terminal has an onsen, a chocolate factory and a cinema, which is what happens when snow delays are a routine part of the schedule.