Although China has the world's fastest growing civil aviation
industry, more airports are needed to extend airline services to
more parts of the country, a senior official said recently.
"The number of airports is still small compared to other
countries," Yang Yuanyuan, head of the Civil Aviation
Administration of China (CAAC), said while addressing a training
course for airport senior managers.
In contrast to the United States, which is home to nearly 20,000
airports, and Brazil, with more than 2,500, China has less than
500, and then only if temporary runways are included.
And the distribution is unbalanced. The density of airports in
eastern China is 5.3 times the national average, while the density
in western China is less than two-thirds the average.
As a result, the country's dozen large airports are operating
beyond their capacity, which raises their logistics costs, while
many small ones are losing money because of a lack of
passengers.
Yang said that although less than 20 percent of all air
passengers use small airports, they are "very important
cornerstones of the sustainable development of civil aviation".
"Airports should be regarded as public infrastructure," he
said.
"Local governments can continue to let profitable large airports
operate as enterprises, but they should treat medium-sized and
small airports as public welfare facilities."
Wang Wei, a professor at the Tianjin-based Civil Aviation
University of China, agreed with that assessment, saying such an
approach would spur the development of airports.
He told China Daily that the widespread notion that
airports are enterprises rather than infrastructure had kept local
governments and large airport groups from building more small
airports in recent years.
"If you simply look at the figures reflecting an airport's
performance, it may seem like they are losing money. But the
benefits they provide to the local economy and tourism sector are
huge," Wang said.
CAAC director Yang urged local governments and large airport
groups to "pay enough attention to the development of small
airports" by providing necessary support.
(China Daily August 2, 2007)
