Japanese Government 777-300ER tail 80-1111 flies a 57-minute local hop at Sapporo

Japanese Government / Imperial Flight's Boeing 777-300ER, tail 80-1111, flew a local circuit from New Chitose Airport in Sapporo on Friday, November 6, 2026. The aircraft departed at 01:48 UTC and landed back at the same airport at 02:45 UTC, spending 57 minutes in the air. The flight covered a great-circle distance of 16 nautical miles, or 18 miles, at an average ground speed of 17 knots. The jet reached a top ground speed of 258 knots and a highest altitude of 4,425 feet.

The 777-300ER is a long-range wide-body jet built to carry about 150 passengers and fly intercontinental routes. For this 16 nm local leg, celebplanes estimates the aircraft burned about 949 US gallons of fuel, producing roughly 9,113 kilograms of CO2, about the same as driving a car 22,556 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 80-1112.

Before this flight, Japanese Government / Imperial Flight's aircraft had landed at Sapporo 35 times in the tracked window from September 23 to November 5, 2026. The last landing at Sapporo before this flight was on November 5, 2026, by the same aircraft, tail 80-1111. The home base for the fleet is Tokyo Haneda International Airport, which is 443 nm from New Chitose. In the 30 days before this flight, the owner's two aircraft visited 6 airports in one country and flew about 2,544 nm. The longest leg in that period was a 592 nm flight from Sapporo to Osaka on October 21, 2026, flown by the other aircraft, tail 80-1112.

New Chitose Airport's longest runway is 9,843 feet, and the field sits at an elevation of 82 feet. The aircraft had been on the ground at Sapporo for about 15 hours before this flight, following a previous tracked landing on November 5, 2026. In the tracked window from September 23 to November 5, 2026, the owner's two aircraft made 40 flights. The most common destination in that window was Sapporo, with 35 landings, followed by Tokyo with 2 landings.

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.

Celebplanes estimates the aircraft burns about 1,000 US gallons of fuel per hour. Recent flights by the same owner include a 2-hour-40-minute Sapporo-to-Sapporo circuit on November 5, 2026, and a 2-hour-31-minute, 136-nautical-mile circuit on the same day, both flown by tail 80-1111. On November 4, 2026, tail 80-1112 flew a 2-hour-60-minute Sapporo-to-Sapporo circuit.

The flight from Sapporo to Sapporo is a routine local repositioning for a fleet that typically operates on long-haul state visits. The aircraft's presence at New Chitose places it within range of its home base and other common destinations in the region.