China tops Asia-Pacific airport growth

Several airport construction projects plateaued in the pandemic. Recovery is on the way and the Asia-Pacific is topping the sector’s investment table a new study reports.

by ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

August 1st 2024

Print Friendly

Construction of new airports and upgrades to existing facilities have declined from near US$ one trillion pre-pandemic to less than $500 billion in mid-2024, a CAPA report reveals. Read More »

The Russia-Ukraine war, investor caution and fewer major projects in progress have slowed the sector’s revival, the survey concludes. Nevertheless, CAPA’s statistics show the Asia-Pacific is leading the world in restarting committed past projects and also in new airport construction. China alone is running six of the top 10 airport projects in the world at present.

However, the region’s largest new airport project is in Vietnam not China. Long Thanh Airport in Ho Chi Minh City is the world’s most expensive green field airport, estimated to cost more than $16 billion when completed.

CAPA’s Airport Construction Database (ACD) shows incomplete projects at existing airports worldwide have now declined to 433 and were valued at $331 billion at July 1. Projects in the database typically are major infrastructure developments such as runways, terminals, ATC towers or combinations of all three.

Reasons [for the fall-off] in airport expansion in the region include the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, a downturn in M&A (Merger & Acquisitions) generally and a lack of top level projects. Additionally, many outstanding projects were completed during the pandemic or planned projects reached their expiration dates during COVID. “This suggested a significant number of them were abandoned in the last four years despite the rapid return in 2023 of air passengers back to, or close to, pre-pandemic levels in 2023,” CAPA said.

Source by: CAPA

Investment in existing Asia-Pacific airports is 170 known projects, valued at $217 billion. China has five of the largest 10 projects, plus Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). HKIA, opened in 1998, is the largest airport infrastructure project in the world by investment ($19.3 billion). Its third runway system and several associated projects are on schedule for completion in the next 12 months.

Other projects of note are Bangkok, which has signed off its upgrade post-pandemic, and Seoul Incheon’s four-stage upgrade that started more than two decades ago.

China’s 25 known projects at existing airports, valued at $68 billion, amount to more than a third of all expenditure in the region with 14 projects valued above $1 billion. As well, there are 22 known new airport projects on the Mainland, costed at $19.6 billion, although all but four of them are valued at $500 million or less.

Turning to new airport projects, CAPA said there are 90 known being built in the region at a cost of $121 billion. Apart from Vietnam’s Long Thanh, Manila and South Korea are investing a combined $17 billion in new airport facilities.

Australia’s Western Sydney Airport is one of the few new airports in the South West Pacific, along with the yet to be commenced “New Melbourne Airport”. The Melbourne project is increasingly less likely to be built before 2030 - at least - but it remains part of the state’s master plan.