Japanese Government 777-300ER tail 80-1111 flies Sapporo to Sapporo in 26 minutes

Japanese Government / Imperial Flight's Boeing 777-300ER, tail 80-1111, flew from New Chitose Airport to New Chitose Airport in Sapporo on Friday, November 13, 2026. The aircraft departed at 02:13 UTC and landed at 02:38 UTC, spending 26 minutes in the air. The flight covered a great-circle distance of 14 nautical miles, or 16 miles, at an average ground speed of 32 knots. The jet reached a top speed of 255 knots and a highest altitude of 3,925 feet.

The 777-300ER is a long-range wide-body jet built to carry about 150 passengers and fly intercontinental routes. For this 14 nm domestic leg, celebplanes estimates the aircraft burned about 427 US gallons of fuel, producing roughly 4,099 kilograms of CO2, about the same as driving a car 10,145 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 37 times in the tracked window from September 23 to November 13, 2026. The last landing at Sapporo before this flight was on November 13, 2026, by tail 80-1112, also a Boeing 777-300ER. 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 2,465 nm. The longest leg in that period was a 592 nm flight from Sapporo to Osaka on October 21, 2026, flown by 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 short local hop, likely for training or maintenance, given the aircraft's recent pattern of similar short flights from New Chitose. The aircraft had been on the ground at Sapporo for about 7 days before this flight, following a previous tracked landing on November 6, 2026. In the tracked window from September 23 to November 13, 2026, the owner's two aircraft made 40 flights, with Sapporo as the most common destination at 37 landings and Tokyo second at 2 landings.

New Chitose Airport's longest runway is 9,843 feet at an elevation of 82 feet. Celebplanes estimates the aircraft burns about 1,000 US gallons of fuel per hour.