CAAC, Fujian to develop air transport

The Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Fujian provincial government held a signing ceremony on April 5 in Fuzhou City for the summary of talks to expedite civil aviation construction on the west shore of the Taiwan Strait. The CAAC supports civil aviation cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan to form the convenient main channel for cross-straits flights. Fujian civil aviation has developed over the years. During the 10th Five-Year Plan, passenger volume in Fujian increased by 12.5 percent. In 2006, passenger volume reached 12.96 million, and cargo and mail throughput reached 257,500 tons. The province has opened 23 international, Hong Kong and Macau air routes, and 117 domestic air routes. Every week there are 1,044 domestic flights and 180 international and Hong Kong and Macao flights departing from the province. During the 11th Five-Year Plan, the CAAC and Fujian will enhance the support on aviation infrastructure construction, and promotion of the sustained and rapid development of civil aviation industry on the west shore of Taiwan Strait. Both will together study and establish the plan of development of civil aviation industry on the west shore of Taiwan Strait and the medium and long term plans for civil airports. Fujian will also expedite regional network hub of civil transport airports on west shore of Taiwan Strait, which will make Fuzhou Changle Airport and Xiamen Changqi Airport as hubs, taking Quanzhou Jinjiang Airport and Wuyishan Airport as backbone, and taking other small airports as supplementary airports including Sanming Airport and Liancheng Airport. CAAC supports all Fujian provincial airports to open flights to Taiwan including the development of cross-straits business of air-sea transportation.