Foreign investment is being sought by China's eastern provinces to help fund an array of new airports to be built at an estimated cost of more than US$5 billion.
The area accounts for nearly one third of the nation's air passenger traffic and the deputy director of the Eastern China Civil Aviation Administration, Wu Xisi, says there are plans to add 18 more airports to the 22 operating in the region, including the booming city of Shanghai.
Covering the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Fujian, the announcement indicates China's provincial authorities are not letting up their attempts to cope with continuing growth, despite Beijing's attempts to slow down the stampede. Southern China's Guangdong province, which has already built several new facilities, has also foreshadowed further activity, indicating another six airports are in the pipeline there.
The ECCA's Wu says all 18 of the eastern region's new airports will be required within 10 years but adds that he expects the new projects to be completed in 2000.
Local officials indicate offshore construction funding could exceed half the total. Airport and airline-related facilities will also open up investment opportunities to foreign companies. Eastern China's existing 22 airports handled 21.9 million passengers last year, almost 28 per cent more than in 1993.
The China Aviation Industrial Corporation recently released a long-term study forecasting that the nation's civil aviation fleet will grow from 400 to 2,216 over the next 20 years, with annual air traffic increasing by around 12.3 per cent.
Source: Airline Business
