Ryukyu Air Commuter

Ryukyu Air Commuter Co., Ltd.
琉球エアーコミューター株式会社
Ryūkyū Eā Komyūtā Kabushiki-gaisha

IATA ICAO Call sign RC RAC RYUKYU
Founded	December 24, 1985; 39 years ago (1985-12-24)
Commenced operations	February 17, 1987; 37 years ago (1987-02-17)
Hubs	Naha Airport
Fleet size	5
Destinations	9
Parent company	Japan Transocean Airlines (74.5%)
Headquarters	Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
Key people	Susumu Namihira (President & CEO)[1]
Website	www.rac-okinawa.com

Ryukyu Air Commuter (RAC) is a Japanese regional airline headquartered in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.^[2] It operates domestic passenger services from the island of Okinawa to other islands of Okinawa Prefecture and the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture. It is owned by Japan Transocean Air (74.5%), Okinawa Prefecture (6.3%), Minamidaitō (4,8%) Kumejima (4,3%) Kitadaitō (4,0%) and other shareholders (6,1%).^[2]

Ryuku Air Commuter was established on December 24, 1985, with help from joint investments from the local government and local businesses. The following year they received the air transport license and the airline started operating flights between Naha and Kerama on the 17th of February 1987. This route was operated with a Britten-Norman BN-2B Islander seating up to nine people.^[3] The next route introduced by the airline was  from Naha to Aguni and commenced on December 20th, 1989.  

November 16th, 1992, Ryuku Air Commuter took over two De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft from Japan Transocean Airlines (then known as ‘Southwest Air Lines’), with a capacity of 19 seats this aircraft type had a significantly higher capacity than the BN-2B.^[4] With the introduction of these new aircraft, the airline was able to increase its operations and also operate out of other airports than just Naha. With this growth in the operations the airline started to grow into a commuter airline with wide network of the islands within the prefecture, with the main hub being from the island of Okinawa (Naha Airport).

As a replacement for the DHC-6 Twin Otter the DeHavilland Bombardier Dash 8 100 (DHC-8-100) was introduced in 1997, allowing for even greater capacity by seating up to 39 seats.^[4] With this larger aircraft the airline started two new routes that same year from Naha to Yoron and Kumejima.^[3]

In the following years the airline would see an expansion of their network throughout the Okinawa Prefecture and expanding their fleet with more modern variants of the DHC-8 aircraft. In 2015, the airline signed a firm purchase agreement for five Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 passenger/cargo combi aircraft, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2014. It became the launch customer for this new variant aircraft upon delivery in 2016.^[5] The final Bombardier Dash 8-Q300 flight was on 31 January 2018.

Scheduled destinations (as of November 2019):^[6]

As of June 2024^[update], Ryukyu Air Commuter operates the following aircraft:^[4]

Ryukyu Air Commuter has previously operated the following aircraft:^[4]

• Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander
• De Havilland Canada Dash 8-100
• De Havilland Dash 8-300

Media related to Ryukyu Air Commuter at Wikimedia Commons

• RAC official web site (Japanese)