"Shanghai Plans to Expand Its Airports"

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Shanghai Plans to Expand Its Airports
The Associated Press


SHANGHAI, China - Shanghai plans to expand its airports and increase access
for domestic airlines as it maneuvers to become a regional hub for air
travel, the government said Tuesday.

Pudong International Airport, the newer and bigger of Shanghai's two
airports, will add three new runways to its current one, the city said in a
statement posted on its Web site.

Construction of a second runway will be speeded up since the one currently
in use is already operating at almost full capacity and many airlines are
anxious to add flights to the city, it said.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China, the country's aviation
regulator, has thrown its support behind the plan to build the city of 20
million into a regional hub, CAAC head Yang Yuanyuan said in a statement
released Monday.

"The authority will actively study and set policies to support the
development of an aviation hub," Yang said.

Competition to attract more airlines and travelers has been heating up
around the region. Hong Kong faces a challenge from its south China rival,
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, and the Kansai International Airport
in western Japan and Incheon International Airport in South Korea are also
vying for regional hub status.

Hoping to boost Shanghai's hub hopes, the CAAC earlier allowed Shanghai an
exception to its rules on access to allow all Chinese carriers to offer
flights originating from city.

Shanghai expects to have 100 million air travelers annually by 2015. That's
almost triple the 35 million who have traveled through Pudong International
and the city's older Hongqiao Airport so far this year, Shanghai Daily said.
Hongqiao is now used exclusively for domestic flights.

The amount of air freight moving through Pudong and Hongqiao is also
expected to triple by 2015 to 7 million tons, the newspaper cited officials
meeting in Beijing as saying.

Shanghai is banking on China's growing cachet as a business and leisure
travel destination.

Nationwide, annual growth in passenger travel is expected to average 9.3
percent from 2004 to 2023, China Aviation Industrial Group I said in a
forecast released Tuesday at an air show being held in the southern city of
Zhuhai.

Although Pudong's runways are nearing capacity, its spacious terminals,
opened only in October 1999 along the coast of the city's newly developed
eastern district, still seem quite empty.

Many domestic travelers prefer to fly through Hongqiao, which is closer and
has easier connections to the older downtown area.

Domestic carriers China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines are the only
airlines based in Shanghai, which has been seeking to boost its
international competitiveness and raise its profile as China's commercial
capital.


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