China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990
Chinese airport could partner in Atlanta
July 30, 2009
Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Henan province is considering signing a memorandum of understanding with the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that would commit both sides to exploring chances for collaboration.Zhengzhou, a city of about 7 million people, is the political capital and economic center of Henan, which has a population of nearly 100 million.
A 13-person Henan delegation headlined by Vice Governor Zhang Dawei and Zhengzhou airport General Manager Yue Wenhai visited Atlanta this month to tour local attractions and to visit and study what is claimed to be the world’s busiest airport. They also saw that marker of advanced civilization, the McDonald’s stand.
The Zhengzhou airport will consider sending personnel to share practices on construction and expansion projects as it continues a quest to become a regional air hub.
Warren Jones, Hartsfield’s aviation development manager said Atlanta’s airport is in a unique position to offer advice on how to become a connecting point. About 64% of the 90 million passengers who landed at the world’s busiest domestic airport last year were connecting to other destinations.
Warren Jones outlined factors that play into Hartsfield’s success, stressing that the layout of the airport’s runways is the secret to its efficiency. All five run parallel to each other, minimizing wait times for takeoffs and landings.
Global Atlanta reports the delegates also visited the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park. Atlanta has been the world’s busiest airport by passenger volume since 1997, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that the airport edged out Chicago’s O’Hare to become what is the busiest by domestic takeoffs and landings as well. The use of the word "domestic" is because for international flights Heathrow in London still seems to have the lead.