Commercial aircraft landed in Sendai on Wednesday for the first time since the city's busy airport was crippled by the powerful tsunami on Japan's northeastern coast last month.
The opening will provide a boost to an area constrained by road closures and limited train services, which has hampered the relief effort.
A Japan Airlines (JAL) plane from Tokyo's Haneda airport touched down on the runway around 8am and was greeted by staff as it taxied towards the terminal building.
JAL and competitor All Nippon Airlines (ANA) will run six shuttle flights a day between Sendai, the largest city in the devastated northeast of Japan, and Tokyo or Osaka.
Hundreds of cars, several planes and even houses were washed onto the runway when the huge waves engulfed the coast on 11 March.
The terminal building was flooded and fires erupted in the car park and in aircraft hangars.
Teams of US service personnel who specialise in re-opening stricken air strips arrived at the airport a few days after the tsunami hit.
After clearing the runway of debris they began using the airport to ferry in relief supplies by C-130 Hercules transport planes.
