Baiyun cargo takes off as Guangzhou airport becomes hub

The New Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou expects to triple tonnage from last year’s figure within three years. This, after the completion of a new cargo terminal, a new runway and express operator FedEx’s Asia-Pacific cargo center.

New Baiyun handled 653,000 tonnes of cargo and post parcels last year, a rise of only 8.6% over 2005, a relatively low figure compared with other China airports.

But overseas-bound cargo traffic has been rising by an average 50% annually since the opening of the new airport in August 2004.

Liu Zijing,general manager of the Guangdong Airport Management Corporation (GAMC). Said, ‘The new airport has been developing well and fast over the past three years and should become a hub for international flights by 2010.’

Liu Zijing believes New Baiyun willl handle two million tonnes of cargo by 2010, three times last year’s figure, and four million tonnes by 2020.

The new cargo terminal, with an annual handling capacity of 500,000 tonnes, will be completed next year; construction of a third runway and a new passenger terminal will start in 2008; and FedEx’s cargo hub will be completed in the latter half of 2008.

The new airport is also setting up feeder cargo stations, a logistics park and a new administrative center, and opening more international routes, streamlining Customs services and holding talks on the building of a network of network of expressways for speedier cargo flow from other provinces in the Pearl River Delta.

The amazing illustration comes from the SOVINFORMSPUTNIK via the PLA.