Oita Hovercraft

Oita Hovercraft
大分空港海上アクセス
LocaleOita, Japan
FleetHovercraft
OwnerOita prefecture
OperatorOita Daiichi Hoverdrive
Operation will start2024

Oita Hovercraft is a hovercraft service operating a 33-kilometre route between the city centre of Oita city and Oita airport scheduled to resume in 2024.[1] The route is expected to become one of the two regular hovercraft services in the world, the other being the service between the Isle of Wight and Southsea in England.[2]

Overview

The route was served by the Oita Hover Ferry company from 1971 to 2009, which operated hovercraft on the airport route as well as other tourist routes. When it ceased operations in 2009, its fleet consisted of four hovercraft built by Mitsui E&S.

Financial difficulties were the primary reason the hovercraft service had to be withdrawn. However, the bus route that replaced the service took more than one hour to get to the city centre from the airport, while hovercraft could connect these two places in just 25 minutes. This led the Governor of Oita, Katsusada Hirose, to decide on the resumption of the hover service in 2020.[3]

As Mitsui E&S, the only Japanese builder of commercial hovercraft,[4] had already stopped building them, the British hovercraft company Griffon Hoverwork Ltd, the only builder of such ships in the world, was commissioned to build a fleet of three ships. These three ships cost the prefecture approximately 4 billion yen in total (approximately £26 million using the exchange rate when the order was placed). The ships were based on those operated on the Isle of Wight routes, while being approximately two metres longer. The three ships were named Baien, Banri, and Tanso, each after a renowned scholar from Oita during the Edo period.[5]

  • Baien at the Port of Oita, 2023
    Baien at the Port of Oita, 2023
  • Banri at the Oita Hover Depot, 2023
    Banri at the Oita Hover Depot, 2023
  • Oita Hover Ferry hovercraft in 2009
    Oita Hover Ferry hovercraft in 2009
  • Oita Airport Hover Terminal, 2023
    Oita Airport Hover Terminal, 2023

References

  1. ^ "Hoverdrive". hoverdrive.jp. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  2. ^ Writer, Yohei Sekiya / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff (2023-09-03). "Hovercraft to Return to Oita, Ferrying Passengers to Airport". japannews.yomiuri.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  3. ^ "Oita airport hovercraft service resumes in 2023". The Nikkei (in Japanese). 2020-03-04. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  4. ^ "三井造船／大分ホーバーフェリーから100人乗りホーバークラフト１隻受注". 日本海事新聞 電子版 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  5. ^ "All of the Oita Hovercraft fleet has been delivered". 乗りものニュース (in Japanese). 2024-02-17. Retrieved 2024-07-04.