[photopress:Shanghjai.jpg,full,alignright]China mainland will invest RMB140 billion ($17.5 billion) in the construction of airports to 2010. Zhang Haidong, from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, said at the Fifth Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition (ACWCE) in Hong Kong, ‘In the next five years, we are going to launch 71 airport expansion projects, relocate 11 airports and build 49 new airports.’
A neat point is made about the changing role of airports.
Major airports are evolving from a city’s airport to an airport city.
An amazing statement but, on examination, quite correct. Airports are becoming the focal point of people, cargo, capital and information flow. Thus the term airport city more precisely defines how it becomes an increasingly important economic growth engine for local and regional development.
For example, Shanghai is building an integrated complex hub. A 12 square kilometer free trade logistics area is being developed and Chairman and President of Shanghai Airport Authority Wu Nianzu said the government also has decided to build a 86 km cargo expressway as an international passage between the airport and the Yangtze River Delta Region. That will result, almost by definition, in an airport city. Not an airport with support structure.
Source: Xinhua