China News Service:
The newly-built Beijing Daxing International Airport epitomizes the rapid development of medium- and large-sized airports across the country during the 13th Five-Year Plan. Could you please give us an overall view of airport construction during this period? Thank you.
Feng Zhenglin:
Thank you for your question. The construction of airports for civil aviation, which is conducive to the fulfillment of the 13th Five-Year Plan, can be defined by their large-scale, fast construction, large investment and efficient operations. By the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the number of airports across the country is expected to reach 241, with 43 new and relocated or refurbished airports. These include an additional 41 runways, 5.88 million square meters of terminal space and 2,264 more aircraft parking spaces to expand airport capacity to 1.4 billion visits. The number of airports in the country with a capacity above 10 million increased from 26 at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan to 39 by 2019. In addition, 11 of these have reached a capacity above 30 million. This has substantially improved the shortfalls and limited capacity of key airports.
Second, construction has progressed quickly. The last five years has seen construction of Beijing Daxing International Airport and refurbishment and expansion of 15 medium- and large-sized airports, including in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, Chongqing municipality, Wuhan and Zhengzhou. You will be aware that Beijing Daxing International Airport, the huge top-level international aviation hub, was completed in four and a half years during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Having been in operation for less than one year by Sept. 22, the airport has seen throughput of more than 10 million passengers, indicating a good momentum for quality development among large-sized international airports in spite of the pandemic's impact. During the same period, nine airports, including those in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region; Shenzhen, Guangdong province; Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province; and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, are being expanded. Renovations to Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, the new Qingdao airport and Guiyang Airport are also all well underway. Construction has started on Ezhou Airport in Hubei province, China's first air freight transport center, with modern engineering management. From my own visits, I can assure you of their utmost advanced information technology and engineering application which guarantee the speed and quality of construction. In addition, the expansion or relocation of a number of small or non-key airports has been completed. The year 2017 marked the most fruitful year in China's civil aviation history with 14 additional runways and 11 new air carrier airports under construction or opening to operations. The approval of the third phase of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport took only four months before construction started recently.
Third, the investment completion efficiency is high. Fixed investment is projected to reach 460 billion yuan by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, registering growth of 26% over the previous five-year plan. During the past three quarters, investment into fixed assets reached 74 billion yuan, marking a rise of around 20% year on year. This achievement symbolizes our efforts in counteracting the pandemic's impact with project coordination and construction monitoring.
Fourth, construction work has been highly effective. The refurbishment and expansion of many key airports has progressed smoothly. As a result, they have played a significant role in ensuring the support of the once insufficient infrastructure capacities of civil aviation by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The new projects and plentiful reserve have reinforced the foundation for infrastructure construction during the next five-year plan. Following the requirements of General Secretary Xi, who called on us to build high-quality projects with zero accidents and no corruption, we have resolved to win consent from both the Party and the people with our constructions exemplified in particular by Beijing Daxing International Airport. Meanwhile, based on certain prerequisites, we proposed four additional guiding principles of "safe, smart, green and people centered" for future airports. These principles will be applied to the standards and quality designs as well as the functions and effects of airports in the future.
In addition, our modern large-sized airports will be included in the construction of holistic transport systems, especially the integration with high-speed railways. Centered around the building of large and essential international airports, we will accelerate the construction of our comprehensive transport system. By 2019, 25 out of 39 airports, each with a capacity of over 10 million, have been connected with 37 rail lines. This development is still continuing.
Fifth, this construction work supports the implementation of national strategies. Since the beginning of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, we have built 31 small and non-key airports, relocated eight small airports and expanded the capacity of 34 airports. Among these, 50 are located in western, border or impoverished areas. So far, 92% of prefecture-level cities, 88% of the population and 93% of GDP are within a 100 kilometer radius of civil aviation services, with these figures increasing by 4.8, 3.6 and 2.4 percentage points respectively during the past five years. This work has contributed to the critical phase of China's poverty-alleviation campaign, the development of the western regions and efforts to boost border areas to allow local people to live in abundance. Thank you.
