Beijing airport is about to open a new cargo terminal and is working to reposition itself as the major freight hub for northern China.
The airport has in the past lost business to Seoul Incheon and Shanghai Pudong airports, Beijing Airport City Development (ACL) vice chairman and CEO Desmond Shum told Flight Daily News on the sidelines of Asian Aerospace.
He says Shanghai had a head start but two months ago Beijing airport established a "comprehensive bonded zone".
On 15 September a new cargo terminal will be ready and mid-next month the logistics facilities will open, says Shum, adding that the third line - warehouses - is already up and running.
Beijing Airport Group established ACL in December 2004 to develop the airport's cargo area.
Shum says the airport's cargo handling facilities had been scattered, making the system inefficient.
The new cargo terminal is fully integrated and increases the airport's capacity to 3.5-4 million tonnes per annum from 1.5 million tonnes, he says.
Beijing airport's aim is to "consolidate the cargo market in northern China," says Shum.
He says Hong Kong is very much the cargo hub for southern China, and Shanghai is the cargo hub for the Yangtze River Delta, but Beijing has yet to cement its position as the cargo hub for the north.
Cargo from northeastern provinces such as Shandong, for example, still end up at Shanghai Pudong or Seoul Incheon even though it makes sense to have it transported through Beijing, which is closer, he says.
Beijing also faces competition from the airport in Tianjin, Beijing's port city, but Shum dismisses Tianjin as a threat saying that the airport has only one tenth of Beijing's current cargo volume.
The capital airport is also benefiting from the fact that an increasing number of Chinese carriers are establishing passenger hubs in Beijing. Passenger aircraft are important because the bellyhold is used for cargo.
Shum cites as an example Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, which announced recently it will be stationing some aircraft in Beijing and creating a hub there.
Source: Flight Daily News
