Shenzhen eyes HK air-travel crown
SHENZHEN: Shenzhen, which has morphed from a low-cost manufacturing centre into a booming “Chinese Silicon Valley” technology hub, is a rising threat to Hong Kong’s regional domination in international air travel.
Shenzhen’s airport has long been a busy domestic hub, with 38 million passengers flying within China last year, but moved fewer than three million on international flights.
Now, operator Shenzhen Airport Co Ltd says it aims to grow international air traffic to 15 million passengers by 2025.
For sure, that’s still below the 82 million passengers that Hong Kong will have by then, according to International Air Transport Association Consulting projections — around 80 per cent of whom will fly to and from destinations outside mainland China, if today’s traffic trends analysed by air travel data group OAG are maintained.
But Chinese airlines’ cheaper labour costs, and better road and rail links mean Shenzhen could wrest some of the growth from Hong Kong in the years ahead.
Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, which also includes Shenzhen, had 13.5 million international passengers last year.
Shenzhen’s growth comes after the Chinese government upgraded it to an “international aviation hub” under its five-year plan in 2016, matching the status of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Nearby Zhuhai and Macao airports were not upgraded.
Some analysts predict Shenzhen’s gross domestic product will overtake Hong Kong’s next year. Reuters