SZ airport takes center stage in plan

Writer: Zhou Ting  | Editor: Holly Wang  | From:  | Updated: 2019-07-30

Shenzhen is striving to become a core of a world-class airport cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to a three-year action plan released by Guangdong Provincial Government.

As the action plan for 2018-2020 clearly proposes the construction of a world-class airport cluster in the Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen will ramp up efforts in the construction of an international aviation hub, improve domestic and international aviation networks and multi-transport facilities, and strive to make Shenzhen International Airport a core airport of the airport cluster in the Greater Bay Area.

The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) for the Development of the Comprehensive Transportation System in Guangdong Province proposes that during the five-year period, Guangdong will focus on building a “5+4” airport network that includes five Pearl River Delta region airports, namely Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Shenzhen International Airport, Pearl River Delta Airport in Foshan, Zhuhai Jinwan Airport and Huizhou Pingtan Airport, and four airports in cities around the Delta region, namely Jieyang Chaoshan Airport, Zhanjiang Airport, Meixian Airport and Shaoguan Airport.

As the gateway of the city’s international exchanges and the core airport in the Greater Bay Area, the Shenzhen airport has taken the lead in the construction of an international aviation hub.

Following the opening of 15 new international routes last year, it has added six new ones this year, bringing its total number to 50 and serving 25.8 million passengers as of June.

Faced with rapidly increasing passenger demand, the Shenzhen airport has already launched a new round of infrastructure expansion and construction projects. The satellite terminal project started last year, covering an area of 23.5 hectares with four floors set up above ground for baggage handling, domestic arrivals, domestic departures and waiting areas, and one floor underground for MRT platforms and baggage sorting.

The satellite terminal adopts an “X-shape” design and has 56 contact bridges for boarding to maximize the use of space and increase capacity. In addition, to accommodate the docking requirements of different aircraft models, the satellite terminal can also achieve combined position conversion to improve resource utilization.

The satellite terminal project is expected to be completed in 2020 and put into use in 2021. Additionally, the Central Government has approved the construction of the third runway at an investment of about 9.35 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion).

The opening up of the Greater Bay Area has brought new opportunities to airlines as well. In the future, Spring Airlines will actively participate in Shenzhen’s construction of an international aviation hub by building a network of Northeast Asia transit routes to Southeast Asia and South Asia, and helping to make the Shenzhen airport a large-scale low-budget aviation hub in the Asia Pacific.

China Southern Airlines will receive a total investment of 30 billion yuan from entities identified by Guangdong Province, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The airline has promised to mainly use the funds to support the development of civil aviation in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, introduce more wide-body aircraft and expand its international route network.


“The Shenzhen airport is gearing up to play an even more important role in building a comprehensive transportation system, improving the aviation network and building a passenger and cargo transportation network for the Asia-Pacific area,” said Zheng Hongbo, chairman of Shenzhen Airport Group.