Chongqing Jianbei International airport is targeting to grow its international network, as construction of a third terminal and runway comes close to completion.
Speaking to Flightglobal at Routes Asia in Manila, the airport’s deputy general manager of marketing Patrick Chang says the airport handled 32 million passengers last year, exceeding its design capacity of 30 million.
Construction of a third terminal and runway is scheduled to be completed within the first half of 2017, which will drive the airport’s capacity up to 60 million.
“The last 10 years we had an average annual growth of 17.6%, and our forecast is that we’ll hit 55 million by 2020,” says Chang.
The majority of the traffic at the Chinese airport is domestic, with international passengers accounting for just 7% of the total figure. Its target, hence, is to drive its international expansion to more than 50 global destinations.
“Going forward, we want to focus more on connections to the Middle East, Europe and Africa, because geographically, we have an advantage,” says Chang, adding that there is also strong economic growth in western China.
In 2020, the airport will also start its second phase of expansion, extending its third terminal and also building a fourth runway. Under its master plan, the airport will eventually have a capacity to handle 75 million passengers annually.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
