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Beijing pledges $11.7 billion for aviation infrastructure development in 2016
January 15th 2016
China will invest approximately 77 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) in civil aviation infrastructure development in 2016, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Read More » Specifically, the regulator said eleven key infrastructure projects and 52 upgrades or expansion works on civil aviation facilities would begin this year.
Meanwhile, the CAAC will continue to focus its efforts on the construction of the new hub airports in Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Qingdao and Xiamen.
The CAAC said work on Beijing's second international airport, Daxing International Airport, the largest construction project in Chinese civil aviation history, is progressing well. Construction of the terminal and air traffic control facilities began in September and work on support facilities are scheduled to commence in June.
The $13.1 billion airport, 46 kms south of Beijing, will have up to eight runways, 150 passenger aircraft parking bays and 24 cargo airplane spaces. At its (delayed) scheduled opening in December 2019, it is planned to process up to 45 million passengers a year, building to 72 million passengers, two million tonnes of cargo and 620,000 airplanes per annum by 2025.
This year, the civil aviation agency will work with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, to publish a blueprint on the locations of new civil airports to be built before 2030, according to the statement. Dong Zhiyi, a deputy director at the administration, has said China plans to build 66 civil airports in the next five years, taking the number of such facilities in China from 206 to 272.
In other Mainland news, Hong Kong’s Airport Authority and Shenzhen Airport Management Co. have agreed to coordinate future airspace and development planning between Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and Shenzhen Bao’an to ease the Pearl River Delta’s notorious airspace congestion. The two airports also agreed to introduce improved immigration and air, sea and land transfers between the neighbouring facilities.
In the leasing sector, Bohai Leasing has completed its $7.6 billion acquisition of Irish lessor, Avolon Holdings, ranking parent, the HNA Group, as the world’s fourth largest lessor by asset value, inclusive of orders, with “a medium-term objective to become a top three aircraft lessor globally”.
And in Shanghai, China Eastern Airlines has received approval for a $15 billion yuan ($2.28 billion) private placement to finance new aircraft and settle debt.
