Small Airports Are Gasping
With the comment made by Feng Jianhua, general manager of Mianyang Airport, in an essay published on an industry website (www.aerochina.com.cn), that ninety-one percent of the 103 small airports are receiving less than 1 million passengers annually, we can see that most of the small airports in China are struggling for life. However, still more will be strengthened rapidly with the help of the appealing of stimulating the domestic demand.
As is said by Feng, none of the airports which handle less than 500,000 passengers a year achieved break-even. Take the nine small airports that are under the operation of the Inner Mongolia Civil Airports Group in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region for example. They are all reported by Han Zhiliang, the group’s president, to have suffered losses in the last year and the year before.
Compared with the China’s ten largest airports which get 60 percent of the total air passengers, all the small airports throughout the country take the proportion of 6.4 percent in 2006.
Wang Jian, secretary general of China Civil Airports Association, pointed out the reason for the doom of the small airports usually built by the local government in order to promote the investment. They fail to arouse the interest of any airlines because of the inadequate travelers there. Wang said, “If they can secure one scheduled flight each day, it would be fantastic.” He added that, unluckily not even a single plane is put into use for days and more seriously, a few ended in being shut down or deserted.
To better the situation, the central government appeals to expand the domestic demand to stimulate the economic recession and it supports the new-run construction scheme. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) made on its website the announcement that 200 billion will be spent on new airport projects in 2009 and 2010. The number of domestic airports will rise from 160 last year to 244 this year. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) gave their ratification to seven airport projects, two of which that are related to small airports gained the consent in January alone.
On the CAAC website, we can find information about the Luoyang airport in central China’s Henan province. It’s said that the number of travelers the airport will be handling would have risen to 760,000 every year with the expense of 270 million yuan.
As for the misgiving that the investment in small airports would be a waste of money, Wang Jian said that the construction of more airports should be strategy-oriented rather than profit-oriented. He showed his attitude in his words — “Small airports like Mianyang played an important role during the May 12 Sichuan earthquake to send rescuers in when roads and railways were broken.”
In the hope of getting rid out of all those obstacles, the CAAC provides subsidies for airlines and airports. And it was conformed by Yang Guoqing, the deputy chief of the organization, last month by saying that 100 small airports will receive support to increase their flights.
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