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FEATURE STORY:The Sky Is Still the Limit for China's Rapidly Expanding Air Travel Network
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The Sky Is Still the Limit for China's Rapidly Expanding Air Travel Network

By Tracy Hall


BT 201607 040 01 feature story 201109160535563058China has long been synonymous with making highly ambitious construction projects a reality. This has included everything from highways to high-speed rail lines and skyscrapers. The rate at which the Middle Kingdom has been building and opening up brand new airports and adding incredible new airport terminals to existing air travel hubs is also awe-inspiring.


At the start of this year the country had 202 fully operational commercial airports. A recent guideline issued by the central government stated that the Chinese authorities aim to have 500 commercial airports up and running by 2020. The Financial Express reported that "China will encourage private investment in the general aviation sector, boost pilot training and expand the use of general aircraft in disaster relief, emergency medical services and environmental monitoring, as well as national land and resources exploration. The government is also encouraging airlines to integrate with the Internet, creative economy and tourism".


BT 201607 040 02 feature story 201507070103593474 tianjin binhaiIf the government's target is met, which at the rate they are building new airports seems likely, then that will be a truly amazing feat that will once again set China apart from the rest of the world in terms of forward thinking, efficient planning and breakneck speed of construction. But the prestige is of course just a by-product of visionary leadership, clever infrastructure investment and hard work. The real rewards will be the boost that the wider economy gets and improvements in Chinese citizens' quality of life as a result of more access to air travel. A larger network of airports, if managed and maintained properly, means faster delivery of good, more competition - which in turn leads to lower prices for consumers and more options for businesses - and a greater share of wealth across the country. All of these things will benefit the growing but slowing economy and Chinese society as a whole.


With the rapidly increasing numbers tourists and business people flying into major Chinese cities from both international and domestic air hubs, there is a lot of pressure on those places that already have highly developed transport networks to expand even further. Most notably the central government announced last year their plans to build a mammoth new international airport that will serve the capital from the next decade onward. Aviation industry commentator Francis Chao points out that "The New Beijing Airport is designed to accommodate 45 million passengers annually on its opening date in 2019, eventually reaching 72 million passengers annually in 2025. Four runways and a 700,000-square-meter terminal are central components of the project, and the final phase of construction will result in a total of seven runways and 100 million passengers annually".

feature story hl01Elsewhere in the country there are albeit slightly less expensive but equally ambitious projects going on. The local authorities in popular coastal economic and tourism hubs Dalian and Xiamen are building brand new islands to accommodate the respective cities' new airports. It has been reported that the cost of landfill in Dalian alone will surpass 26-billion Yuan. Chongqing is currently undergoing a 30-billion Yuan expansion of its own, which is hardly surprising given that it has the fastest growing GDP of any regional economy in China. And of course there is the construction of a new airport that will serve the ultra-popular Sichuan tourist city of Chengdu. The new air hub will have six runways and four terminals and is thought to be costing more than 70 billion Yuan to build.


And it is not just about boosting inbound and outbound tourism in big cities. The current airport building boom is going to open up a world of opportunities for the third tier and lesser known cities that until now have not benefitted as much from the infrastructural revolution that has taken place in the last couple of decades. So too is the increasing demand for air travel that has been sweeping the nation for the last few years. A recent article by Reuters highlighted an interesting case in point, focusing on the city of Mangshi. When the city opened its airport two decades ago, this small tropical city on China's border with Myanmar was served by few airlines. China's recent travel boom has changed that - seven carriers brought in more than 1 million visitors last year. "We had a hard time attracting airlines in the early days," Li Ping, deputy chief of the airport's expansion steering committee, told Reuters. "Now we are struggling to accommodate flights". Mangshi is one of the more than 60 inland airports under expansion, with another 30 new regional airports being built.


BT 201607 040 03 feature story 201501300559248444While this rapid expansion of the nation's air travel network is good news for businesses and travellers alike, there are some notable downsides to consider and bumps that need to be ironed out along the way. The most obvious concern is of course the potential environmental impact of more air traffic. These days air pollution is not just an inner city issue - it is affecting many of the more rural places where some of these big new airports are going to be constructed. With environmental issues being so prominent within economic and political discussions there is obviously going to be some concern about how green this airport building boom can be and how much carbon is emitted as a result of all the extra air traffic.


Moreover, as more planes take to the sky the increasingly congested skies, particularly around the major cities, are already resulting in lengthy delays. In fact the country already has a reputation for flight delays. Bloomberg has reported that "Chinese travellers are spending more time at airports and on aircraft as flight delays worsen. The average delay for flights in 2015 was 21 minutes - two minutes longer than in 2014, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a report. Air China, China Eastern Airline and other carriers which are expanding their fleets and budget carriers, have emerged as economic growth spurs travel demand in China, where the military dominates the country's air space".


These potential downsides to China's airport boom will definitely require careful consideration. However, there is no denying that the benefits will eventually out-weigh the costs, particularly for those relatively small provincial cities that have huge growth potential if they gain more access to the wider Chinese and global markets as a result of better air links.


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