China’s Dalian set for world’s largest offshore airport as Beijing tries to revive moribund northeast
- Dalian city in China’s northeast rust belt is building a new 21 sq km (8.1 square miles) airport on reclaimed land off the coast, nearly double the size of Hong Kong’s
- Despite the devastating impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the global travel industry, China plans to add more than 30 airports nationwide by 2025
While China is slowing its infrastructure spending amid concerns of growing debt, it is still pushing ahead with investment to support its aviation ambitions, including construction of the world’s largest offshore airport outside the northern port city of Dalian.
Despite the devastating impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the global travel industry, China is building more airports. It will add more than 30 nationwide by 2025, boosting national passenger capacity to 2 billion, according to the Civil Aviation Administration Commission (CAAC).
“They didn’t give up on building a new airport in Dalian, but it doesn’t mean it will have the [traffic] volumes,” said Dr James Wang, research director at the Belt and Road Hong Kong Centre and an expert in transport and logistics. ‘This is a chicken and egg situation [for Dalian].”
Dalian Jinzhouwan International Airport, located in the northeastern province of Liaoning, will be 2.7 times bigger than the existing airport and have capacity for 43 million passengers a year.