Shanghai has two, Beijing has two, even Chengdu has two. And now there is renewed impetus for Nanjing to join this exclusive club of cities in China with two airports as soon as possible. It boils down to all being a matter of airspace.
The fifth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) is currently under way in Beijing. There, a top dog in transportation has suggested further research and demonstration of both military and civilian use for Nanjing Ma’an International Airport.
Situated in Nanjing’s northerly Liuhe District, the airport is at present solely used by China’s air force, having been built to replace the aging and constricted Dajiaochang Airport which closed in July 2015. Famed for the approach to its runway in which military jets would pass just a few metres above the busy Shuanlong Avenue, the airport was 86 years old.
So Nanjing has a shiny new military airport and a state-of-the-art civilian airport in Lukou. Problem is Lukou is going to run out of space, not on the ground, but in the air.
Projections state Nanjing Lukou International Airport will need to handle 70 million passengers per year by 2030, reports Eastday.
Deputy to the National People’s Congress and Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transportation, Lu Yongquan, told the NPC as such.
Lu also pointed to the 2006 agreement signed between the former air force of the Nanjing Military Region and the Jiangsu Provincial Government that made clear an area be reserved for civilian aviation at Ma’an, then just in the planning stages.
Just as well. Today, the increasingly congested skies around Lukou will only allow for so much more air traffic. The Nanjinger has also learned today that plans for a third terminal at Lukou are more or less on hold.
Others too have been weighing in on the push for a second airport in Nanjing. One supporter is Luo Qun, Deputy Secretary to both the Party Group of the Standing Committee of Nanjing Municipal People’s Congress and the Party Working Committee of Jiangbei New Area.
On 2 March, Luo said that Liuhe should make the most of its advantages in communication links, specifically mentioning the “further optimising of the functional layout of Ma’an International Airport”.
Back in Beijing, Lu called on the National Development and Reform Commission to incorporate the plan for a mixed-use airport into national policy as soon as possible.
