CHINA. Two major cities in the Yangtze River Delta – Hangzhou and Wenzhou – plan to expand their airports to international status despite civil aviation authorities pouring cold water on plans for more facilities in the region.
The plans came after a senior Civil Aviation Administration official warned last month that airport density in the delta could eventually become the highest in the world.
There are two airports in Shanghai as well as others in Nanjing, Hefei, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou.
Nonetheless, Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan Airport plans to kick off its second-phase project – including a second lounge building and a second runway – over the next two years. The project cost is estimated at 1.5 billion yuan (US$1.8 million).
“We look forward to co-operation with foreign investors through the second phase,” said Huang Yong, deputy director of the Zhejiang provincial development and planning commission.
“Capital is not a problem for us. What we want is to introduce talent and management into the airport.'”
Huang made the comments on the sidelines of the Zhejiang-Hong Kong Logistics Co-operation Forum held in the SAR yesterday.
Xiaoshan Airport is to apply soon for permission to operate more international flights to cope with demand in the face of fast economic growth in the Hangzhou Bay industrial belt.
Last year, Xiaoshan Airport – designed to handle up to seven million passengers – handled 4.35 million. Take-offs and landings in 2003 reached about 50,000.
Huang did not say when the airport would reach its passenger-handling capacity.
The Wenzhou Airport expansion, estimated to cost 299.58 million yuan (US$360,000), is aimed at upgrading it to international status, Huang said.
It handled 3.75 million passengers last year, with up to 1,716 passengers an hour going through at peak times.
Zhejiang has seven airports, of which only those in Hangzhou, Wenzhou and Ningbo are making money.
Some experts in Zhejiang recently suggested making some of the local airports cargo facilities to avoid fierce competition for passenger flights.
