The first Aomori Airport was opened in 1964, in the town of Namioka, with a single 1200 x 30 meter runway designed for use with the NAMC YS-11 aircraft. The airport was located at an altitude of 200 meters in a valley surrounded by mountains, which hampered operations during inclement weather. The runway was lengthened to 1350 meters in 1971, widened to 45 meters in 1972, and extended to 1400 meters in 1973. The terminal building was expanded in 1974, and again in 1978. However, due to the geographic limitations of the existing site, design work began on a new airport at its present location southwest of downtown Aomori. The new facilities opened in 1987 with a single 2000 x 60 meter runway, with an ILS system. The runway was extended to 2500 meters in 1990. All Nippon Airways began operations to Tokyo from 1994. In 1995, the airport terminal building was remodeled, and certified as suitable for international operations. Korean Air began operations to Seoul and Siberian Airlines to Khabarovsk the same year. In 1998, Air Nippon began operations to Sendai Airport. However, usage of Aomori Airport fell short of projections, and the service was canceled after a year. In April 2003, All Nippon Airways withdrew from operations at Aomori as well, turning its routes over to Skymark Airlines, which in turn ceased operations to Aomori from November of the same year. Siberian Airlines stopped its flights to Aomori in 2004. The runway was extended to 3,000 meters in 2005, and the instrument landing system upgraded to handle Cat-3a fog conditions in 2007. The Tōhoku Shinkansenhigh-speed rail line was extended to Aomori in 2010, adding intense competition on the Aomori-Tokyo route. Aomori Prefecture has been considering the privatization of the airport since 2012. On 17 July 2019, EVA Air began operating two flights per week between Aomori and Taoyuan International Airport.
Facilities
Runways
Aomori Airport has one runway that is aligned in a northeast to southwest heading. The runway gets covered in an average of snow annually. The 38-vehicle White Impulse snow removal crew gets rid of the snow covering the airport's runway, taxiway, and apron; an area covering, in 40 minutes.
Ground transportation
The airport is serviced by scheduled bus service to central Aomori and Hirosaki; taxis and rental cars are also available.
Airlines and destinations
Incidents
Two United States Air ForceF-16 Falconfighter jets on a training flight from nearby Misawa Air Base made an emergency landing at Aomori Airport on April 26, 2010 due to engine troubles. In a similar incident several years later, two F-16s from Misawa made an emergency landing at Aomori Airport on April 15, 2015 due to an engine oil leak on one of the aircraft; Aomori Governor Shingo Mimura demanded that the U.S. military take measures to prevent a recurrence.
