Beijing prioritizing airport business to drive growth
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), Beijing is revving up efforts to create new landmarks for international consumption based on its dual hub airports. The city views consumption as key to driving the regional economy.
The dual hub airports-Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport-together with their airport economic zones, are key platforms for the circulation of international resources.
They gather a large number of passengers, cargos, information and capital flows.
In the next few years, Beijing will cooperate with civil aviation, airline companies and various freight market players to ensure that international consumption increases the supply of international goods and services.
Data show that the passenger throughput of Beijing Capital International Airport exceeded 100 million in 2019, ranking first in the country and second in the world. There are 93 airlines operating in 293 destinations in 65 countries and regions.
Since Beijing Daxing International Airport opened in 2019, a total of 39 airlines have been stationed in with 256 routes and 178 destinations.
"Building an international consumption center is an important task in introducing well-known market players and creating a strong environment for shopping and consumption. We are building Daxing into an important consumption highland in the southern part of Beijing," said Cai Xiaojun, deputy director of Daxing district.
"The growth rate of service consumption in Beijing in the past 10 years has always been faster than that of commodity consumption. Online consumption has continued to accelerate. The airport economic zones should explore new consumption trends and create tailored scenarios for customers to better meet needs," he said.
Daxing also strives to build a characteristic industrial system in the comprehensive bonded zone at the airport and improve core competitiveness such as international supply chain distribution, high-end consumption display and trading.
The first phase of the bonded zone is operating as scheduled, coordinating the resources of Beijing and Hebei province.