At the 68th annual Meeting of the International Air Transport Association and the World Air Transport Summit held on the morning of June 11, Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, revealed that by 2020, China will have more than 240 transport airports (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the same below). In the next few years, China plans to build 70 new airports and rebuild (expand) 100 airports. By the end of 2015, the number of transport airports will reach more than 230, passenger transport will reach 450 million, transport aircraft 2700, general aviation aircraft 2000.

"In the next five years, the investment scale of the civil aviation industry will be more than 1.5 trillion yuan." Li jiaxiang said. Among them, the airport capital construction investment scale will reach 425 billion yuan. It should be pointed out that the 1.5 trillion yuan investment in the civil aviation industry is not much different from the 1.875 trillion yuan estimated to be invested in high-speed rail during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. But compared with the widespread attention that high-speed rail has received, investment in civil aviation has been noticeably lower.

Billions of cake

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, which ended in 2010, the number of transport airports in China reached 175, with 33 new airports added in the five years and 33 airports renovated or expanded. China's direct capital investment in civil aviation has reached 250 billion yuan, equivalent to the total amount spent on civil aviation in the previous 25 years.

It is clear that during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, direct capital construction investment in civil aviation will take an even bigger step. The number of new, renovated or expanded airports will soar from 66 during the 11th Five-Year Plan period to 170. Since 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission has also significantly accelerated the approval process for airport projects.

At the end of May 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the feasibility study report of the hongyuan Civil Airport project in Aba, Sichuan province. Aba Hongyuan Airport will meet the 2020 passenger throughput of 350,000 people, freight and mail throughput of 1,050 tons of the target design, a new 3600 meters long runway, 4,500 square meters of terminal, three airport parking apron and air traffic control, oil supply and other related supporting facilities.

Also approved in May were the expansion of Qingyang Airport in Gansu Province, the relocation of Shihezi Airport in Xinjiang Province, the construction of a new Fuyuan Airport in Heilongjiang Province, the east Terminal of Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and the construction of the third runway. The airport projects in Zhengzhou, Henan; Shangrao, Jiangxi; Pudong, Shanghai; Urumqi, Xinjiang; Haikou, Hainan; Hengyang, Hunan; Kaili, Guizhou; Daocheng, Sichuan; and Yibin, Sichuan have also been approved, some of which have been applied for several years.

Unlike the central government, the local government is the main investor in airports. Therefore, in the context of stable growth, in order to offset the impact of export decline and real estate regulation on local GDP growth, a number of large projects with local governments as investment subjects were frequently approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, among which the airport was the most obvious one. According to the website of the Basic Industries Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, the approval information of the airport project takes up most of the content.

As more and more airport projects are approved, a 425bn yuan (us $12bn) programme of direct investment, mainly by the government, is under way. The most obvious direct beneficiaries are the steel, cement, construction machinery and IT industries.

According to the personage inside course of study, usually airport construction investment of 1 billion yuan will consume more than 10000 tons of steel, if the "twelfth five-year" period in China airport construction investment annual average calculated according to 100 billion yuan, drive the steel consumption of about 100 a year - more than 200, ten thousand tons of steel weight of the airport construction during the 12th five-year total between 500 ~ 10 million tons, which does not include fence steel products such as processed products. Calculated by 15,000 tons of cement demand driven by airport investment per 100 million yuan, nearly 70 million tons of cement will be needed for airport construction during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. It is expected to invest 100 billion yuan of Beijing's new airport project has not started, has attracted jidong cement fire sprinkler and jinyu cement two major giants in advance of the struggle.

At the same time, the rapid growth of airport investment on information technology demand is also considerable. At present, airports widely use electronic information technology to realize intelligent control and information management of airport air display, broadcasting, departure, production command, building automation, inquiry and fire control. If the average investment in IT and weak current for each new/renovated airport is 50 million yuan, airport construction during the 12th Five-Year Plan period will bring more than 10 billion yuan of direct IT investment.

Take the second phase of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan, for example. The budget for its weak current information project is as high as 240 million yuan. "During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, informatization will have a more profound impact on the development of the global air transport industry, and airports will definitely increase their input in informatization," he said. Zeng Jun, director of the development planning department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said.

Some IT providers have also begun to advance the layout, hoping to share in the hundreds of billions of dollars of civil aviation cake. In the first half of this year, IBM(Weibo) launched its "smart airport" seven solutions, including passenger interaction and experience, multi-channel construction, marketing and e-commerce, passenger segmentation and product strategy, passenger service system, smart airport accelerator and smart airport control center. According to Liu Ning, consulting director of IBM China Aviation Industry, "IBM hopes to continuously help China's aviation industry in establishing innovative business models, reshaping customer relations and management, building flexible and safe operations, and planning IT strategies to adapt to the future development of enterprises through technological innovation."

Airports play an important role in improving regional image, stimulating local economy, promoting the development of other related industries, and developing airport economy. Short-term direct investment in the construction of an airport can directly drive employment, and the construction of aviation city around the airport, airport expressway and other related supporting facilities can drive local government investment in infrastructure. And as the "low-altitude opening" expands further, the value and importance of airports will be further released.