Kansai International Airport, which opened in September 1994, is the world’s first offshore airport built entirely on an artificial island in Osaka Bay off the Senshu coast. Operating 24 hours a day to global standards, it handles roughly 28 million travelers annually and connects to 82 cities in 23 countries. With multiple runways in the 4,000-meter class, it is one of Japan’s key aviation hubs. As demand for air travel was expected to grow after the liberalization of overseas travel in 1964, planning for a ‘second Kansai airport’ to complement Osaka International Airport began in 1968. Final construction costs reached 1.5 trillion yen. Phase 1 island construction was completed in 1991, and the airport opened in September 1994. Phase 2 construction began in 1999, but to reduce project costs, only the runway and minimal taxiways were developed first; Phase 2 was completed in August 2007. The First Terminal Building was designed with involvement from Italian architect Renzo Piano, and its roof is shaped to evoke an airplane wing—said to resemble a bird resting its wings when viewed from above. In October 2012, a dedicated low-cost carrier (LCC) Terminal 2 opened.