On March 8, CAAC Administrator Feng Zhenglin met with Vice Governor Zhang Jinghua of Jiangsu Province and his associates. The two sides exchanged views on further driving civil aviation development in Jiangsu.

Feng Zhenglin said that during the 13th Five-year Plan period, the civil aviation development in China would focus on the structural reform of the supply side, with the priority being addressing the shortages in airspace resources, infrastructure support and human resources, so as to make all-out efforts to promote the development of China into a civil aviation powerhouse. Feng also pointed out that, in the process of realizing the strategic goal of developing a civil aviation powerhouse, the first thing to do should be constructing the three world-class airport clusters in the regions of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, with each airport having different function positioning and being operated in a differentiated manner. He suggested that Jiangsu should base its own development on the development of the Yangtze River Delta world-class airport cluster, adopting a scientific approach to decide the function positioning of airports in Jiangsu, implementing differentiated operation, proactively developing regional air transport and cargo air transport, and making great efforts to promote the growth of general aviation. CAAC will continue to support the civil aviation development in Jiangsu and will join hands with Jiangsu provincial government in facilitating the fast growth of the civil aviation industry in the province.

Zhang Jinghua thanked CAAC for its long-term support for the civil aviation development in Jiangsu. He expressed that since the 12th Five-year Plan period, the civil aviation support capabilities in Jiangsu has greatly increased, air transport and international air routes developed steadily, general aviation rapidly grown and structural reform gradually deepened, which altogether contributed to an increasingly important role of the civil aviation industry in the economic and social development of Jiangsu. During the 13th Five-year Plan period, Jiangsu will take full advantage of the critical opportunity period for the rapid growth of the civil aviation industry to enhance integration of airport resources, accelerate incubation of Jiangsu-based air transport enterprises, actively optimize airspace operation environment, constantly improve air route network, vigorously develop general aviation and the aviation industry and continuously enhance the competitiveness of civil aviation in Jiangsu. Zhang hoped that CAAC would continue to support the civil aviation development in Jiangsu and push the development to a new high.

Jiangsu province currently has 9 transport airports, whose passenger and cargo throughput during the 12th Five-year Plan period increased by 12.4% and 9.5% respectively. In 2016, airports in Jiangsu transported 37.26 million passengers and 516 thousand tons of mail and cargo, respectively up by 20.2% and 6.3% compared with a year ago, among which the passenger throughout of international routes registered a year-on-year increase of 62.9%, with the increase of the number of passengers transported being ranked among the top in eastern China.