China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) is forecasting 216 new airports by 2035 to reach a total of 450 operational airports according to a recently revealed report by CAAC News.
As a result of this planning, China would overtake the US as the world’s largest aviation market in the next decade. Chinese government has already largely invested in their infrastructures over the last years in order to meet capacity issues and objectives due to massive Chinese international trade growth.
Mr. Dong Faxin, the director of the CACC administration’s development and planning department stated that service has improved substantially, but existing airports are far from adequate and are unevenly distributed throughout the country.
The planning of the new airports would include first class airports to be built in the Yangtze River Delta region, in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and in the Chongqing and Chengdu city cluster.
CACC also revealed they expect that growth figures will be supported for more than 30% by air passenger traffic in China. Last year the Chinese airports handled 552 million trips and it is expected this number will increase by 2020 to a level of 720 million trips.
