Japanese Government 777-300ER tail 80-1112 flies 11 nm in 37 minutes at Sapporo

Japanese Government / Imperial Flight's Boeing 777-300ER, tail 80-1112, flew from New Chitose Airport in Sapporo to New Chitose Airport in Sapporo on Friday, October 23, 2026. The aircraft departed at 02:06 UTC and landed at 02:43 UTC, spending 37 minutes in the air. The flight covered a great-circle distance of 11 nautical miles, or 12 miles, at an average ground speed of 17 knots. The jet reached a top speed of 243 knots and a highest altitude of 3,675 feet.

The 777-300ER is a long-range wide-body jet built to carry about 150 passengers and fly intercontinental routes. For this 11 nm domestic leg, celebplanes estimates the aircraft burned about 618 US gallons of fuel, producing roughly 5,932 kilograms of CO2, about the same as driving a car 14,683 miles. The aircraft is one of two 777-300ERs operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force for the Prime Minister and the Imperial Family, with the other being tail 80-1111.

Before this flight, Japanese Government / Imperial Flight's aircraft had landed at Sapporo 28 times in the tracked window from August 30 to October 22, 2026. The last landing before this flight was on October 22, 2026, by tail 80-1111. The home base for the fleet is Tokyo Haneda International Airport, which is 443 nm from Sapporo. In the 30 days before this flight, the owner's two aircraft visited 11 airports in two countries and flew about 14,494 nm. The longest leg in that period was a 5,285 nm flight from Elmira/Corning to Sapporo on September 23, 2026, flown by the same aircraft, tail 80-1112.

Japan's Air Self-Defense Force operates the two 777-300ERs as primary transport for the Prime Minister and the Imperial Family, always deploying them together for heads-of-state missions. The aircraft are based at Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido and frequently stage through Tokyo Haneda. Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako use the same aircraft for state visits. Japan is a top-20 economy and G7 member, so the aircraft appear at virtually every major multilateral summit. No scheduled public appearance or event for Japanese Government / Imperial Flight near Sapporo was found in the available web sources.

The flight from Sapporo to Sapporo is a brief local repositioning for a fleet that typically operates on long-haul state visits. The aircraft's presence at New Chitose keeps it within range of its home base and other common destinations in the region. Before this flight, the aircraft had been on the ground at Sapporo for about 43 hours, following a previous tracked landing on October 21, 2026.

New Chitose Airport's longest runway is 9,843 feet, with an elevation of 82 feet. The aircraft burned an estimated 1,000 US gallons of fuel per hour. In the tracked window from August 30 to October 22, 2026, the owner's two aircraft flew 40 flights. The most common destinations in that period were Sapporo, with 28 landings, and Tokyo, with 6 landings.

On October 22, 2026, tail 80-1111 flew two short flights from Sapporo to Sapporo, one lasting 1 hour 9 minutes over 3 nautical miles and another lasting 2 hours 52 minutes over 21 nautical miles. On October 21, 2026, tail 80-1112 flew from Osaka to Sapporo, covering 590 nautical miles in 1 hour 58 minutes, and earlier that day from Sapporo to Osaka, covering 592 nautical miles in 2 hours.