Jiangsu will step up efforts to ensure the progress of airport projects this year, according to the province’s civil aviation work conference held on March 28.
At present, the province's airports are steadily reopening the routes suspended due to COVID-19. For example, Nanjing Lukou International Airport has 33 domestic airlines operating flights to 83 cities. Sunan Shuofang International Airport and Nantong Airport have 12 and 16 airlines operating, respectively.
Jiangsu has planned nine airport projects with an investment of 2.62 billion yuan. According to the civil aviation office of the province’s Department of Transportation, Jiangsu will complete the renovation of Terminal 1 at Yancheng Nanyang Airport this year, and continue expansion works at Sunan Shuofang International Airport, Yangzhou Taizhou International Airport, Changzhou Benniu International Airport and Xuzhou Guanyin International Airport. Jiangsu will also start the Phase III project at Huaian Lianshui Airport and strive to kick off the construction and expansion at Yancheng Nanyang Airport too. Efforts will be made to win the approval for the Phase III project at Nanjing Lukou International Airport Phase.
Jiangsu will focus on accelerating the recovery of international passenger flights and try to restore the number of international flights to 50% of the pre-epidemic level in the first half of the year. Nanjing Lukou International Airport has resumed 11 flight routes to Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
Yu Jin, director of the Planning and Development Department of Eastern Airports Group, said the group’s airports have been in smooth operation as the number of flights and passenger traffic rebounded to 90% and 80% of the level in 2019, respectively.
The group aims to achieve a passenger throughput of 38 million, up 98.9% year-on-year, and a cargo and mail throughput of 490,000 tons, up 8.9% year-on-year, according to Yu. Meanwhile, the goal for Nanjing Lukou International Airport is to handle 24 million passengers and 410,000 tons of cargo and mail this year.
According to the plan, Jiangsu will build 35 general aviation (GA) airports by 2035 and then increase the number of such airports to 70 in the long term, with a density of 3-4 airports per 10,000 square kilometers.
In addition, Jiangsu will finish building Zhenjiang Dalu Airport this year and continue the development of a base for the integrated development of the GA industry and education. The province supports Gaoyou, Dafeng, Xinghua and other places to speed up the preparation work for building GA airports and hopes the site selection work can be undertaken in areas that are ready first.
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