keynote feature Beijing expands
THE NEWLY-BUILT third runway at Beijing Capital International airport (BCIA) has passed examination by China’s civil aviation authority and will be inaugurated on 29 October. The third runway is part of an expansion project which also includes the construction of a new terminal building covering 420,000m2
, some 100 new aircraft
apron stands, a cargo zone and auxiliary facilities, which will enable the airport to accommodate 60 million passengers and handle 1.8 million tons of cargo each year. Nevertheless, this might not be
enough and local planners are assessing the district of Daxing to the south of the city as a potential home for a new international airport. Recognising a capacity shortage in cargo and passenger facilities provided by BCIA in the next 10 years, the municipal
government plans to convert the suburban Daxing district into a logistics hub for Beijing and nearby Hebei Province. The plans will need state-level approval. Daxing is to the south of Beijing and is connected by the sixth ring road to the city. It is on main highway G106. It currently takes about one hour to drive from Daxing to downtown in good traffic conditions, and the road and rail network would
need considerable upgrading if an airport was to be constructed there. If the Daxing airport is used to handle regional passenger flights within Asia this would significantly increase the cargo flow and new air freight facilities will be needed if these plans are implemented.
n BCIA saw its cargo throughput rise by 17 percent year-on-year to record over 1.1 million tons in the first half of 2010.
to the third phase of its expansion project. Meanwhile, incentives are being offered to carriers as part of the municipality’s ‘Take off from Xiamen’ campaign.
FIGHTING FOR CARGO DOWN SOUTH The Pearl River Delta, the so-called factory of the world, is awash with runways and the three giant cities in the region – Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – are slugging it out to win the cargo volumes for their respective air freight centres.
‘Fast track’ cargo offloads at Shanghai Pudong International airport
Some airports in the area, however, have rather fallen by
the wayside in their search for business – such as Zhuhai and Macau. Rather neatly, the big three express operators are aligned at the three major hubs: DHL in Hong Kong, UPS in Shenzhen and FedEx in Guangzhou. Guangzhou Baiyun International airport has vast
amounts of capacity for freight and the gloves have come off in the airport’s very public fight to attract more business by highlighting its competitive prices. At the opening of the latest bonded warehouses at the airport on 30 March this year, an executive noted: “Our cost is only about 20 percent to 30 percent of Hong Kong. We have great advantages in price.” This claim corresponds with those made
by air freight officials at China Southern Airlines in January when the carrier opened a bonded logistics centre, which was close to 80 percent cheaper than similar facilities in Hong Kong, they maintained. With the arrival of FedEx, which moved
its Asia Pacific hub there in February 2009 from the Philippines, Guangzhou Baiyun’s cargo throughput hit 960,000 tons last
14 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
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