CAAC calms concerns over airport expansion

The head of the nation's aviation regulator on Thursday moved to calm market concerns over the expansion of regional airports in China, saying that although the airports are making a loss, they will still contribute to the growth of China's economy.

Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), made the remarks at the annual China Civil Aviation Development Forum in Beijing.

Li said 134 of China's regional airports made a loss last year, amounting to a total loss of 2.9 billion yuan ($471.40 million), with each airport making a loss of around 20 million yuan.

Li also said that China's airports contribute around 3 trillion yuan annually to the country's gross national product.

The loss is mainly due to their methods of operation, according to Li.

"If the airports were public infrastructure facilities, they would make a profit," Li noted.

At the moment, local governments create companies to build and run the airports, but Li suggested that the governments should only be responsible for the construction, and not have any involvement in running the airports.

If the airports were to be public infrastructure facilities, it would mean that governments were only responsible for the investment in building them, Kuang Haibo, a professor at Dalian Maritime University, told the Global Times Thursday.

"Then the pressure on airports, which would be responsible for their own operation, would be much less," Kuang noted.

China currently has 183 airports, and the number will climb to 260 by 2020, Li said.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation has approved nearly 20 airport projects since May 2012, including both expansion of existing airports and building new ones.

However, it will not be easy to achieve Li's suggestion of limiting local governments' involvement in the airports, Zou Jianjun, a professor at the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, told the Global Times Thursday.