China will strive to forge Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, into international aviation hubs, in order to promote collaborative development among world-class city groups and airport groups, a senior official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.
The move aims to tackle existing problems in the three airports' operation, such as the low proportion of international flights and flight transfer inconvenience, Feng Zhenglin, head of the CAAC, said in an article published by the People's Daily on Monday.
In 2016, the three airports delivered 473 million passengers, accounting for 46.5 percent of the country's total, according to the article. They handled cargo volume of 14.69 million tons, representing 74.7 percent of the national total.
Urban agglomeration means the formation of a cluster of cities that collaborate and share resources, Feng said in the report, noting that an airport network is a group of airports that coordinate their operations while developing with differentiation.
