On September 7, a working meeting on advancing the construction of civil aviation infrastructure was held in Chengdu city, Sichuan Province. CAAC Administrator Feng Zhenglin attended this meeting, highlighted that efforts shall be made to speed up civil aviation infrastructure construction, advance the construction of safe, green, smart and culture-oriented airports, promote modern project management, clarify construction related responsibilities, and vigorously promote the strategy of building China into a powerhouse of civil aviation, in a bid to make greater contribution to the social and economic development at national and local level. CAAC Deputy Administrator Wang Zhiqing presided over the meeting and delivered a concluding remarks.

Feng Zhenglin said that the Party Central Committee, the State Council, the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee and local people’s governments at various levels all attach great importance to the civil aviation infrastructure construction. In the past five years, significant achievements were made in civil aviation infrastructure construction due to continuous increase in total investment and acceleration in airport construction, which led to an obvious improvement in ATC facilities, a marked improvement in airport’s capability as a comprehensive support service provider, increasingly science and technology intensive infrastructure and greater contribution of infrastructure to industry development. But the constraint imposed by lagged infrastructure construction on the sustainable civil aviation development is still not effectively mitigated, resulting in a series of contradictions, including those between thriving demand for civil aviation development and relatively lagged infrastructure construction, requirement for highly systematic industry operation and inadequately coordinated infrastructure construction, and requirement for better civil aviation service quality and insufficient innovation in infrastructure design, construction, etc.

Feng Zhenglin pointed out that by keeping in mind the important instructions made by President Xi Jinping during his inspection visit to Beijing New Airport this February and adhering to the basic principles of promoting goal-orientated practices, giving to full play the role of planning in guiding development, achieving coordinated development and seeking innovation-driven growth, civil aviation community shall earnestly build a well-structured modern airport system comprising of international hubs, regional hubs, fully functional large, medium and small hubs, non-hub transport airports and GA airports; develop a modern civil aviation ATM system which features coordinated development and takes all the aspects into consideration including safety, capacity, efficiency and service; build a civil aviation science and technology support system which is engaged in basic technologies research, application technologies development, translation of sci.& tech. advances into productive forces, and the cultivation of creative talents, in an effort to seek to achieve, by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, a marked improvement in civil aviation operation and support capability, more rational resource allocation, a distinct improvement in operational efficiency in the industry, an obviously decreased level of capacity saturation and better connection with other modes of transport, so as to fully unleash civil aviation development potentials.

During the meeting, Ren Hong, Deputy Director General of the Department of Basic Industries, National Development and Reform Commission, and Cai Jun, Deputy Director General, Office of China State Air Traffic Control Commission delivered speeches on advancing the construction of civil aviation infrastructure. Person in-charge of the Department of Development Planning under CAAC elaborated on the guiding principles, major tasks and government policies governing civil transport airport construction during the 13th Five-Year Plan. Beijing Capital Airports Holding, Sichuan Development and Reform Commission, China Southwest ATM Bureau and Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission commented on the development of civil aviation infrastructure in their respective jurisdiction. Present at the meeting were circa 200 representatives from National Development and Reform Commission, Office of China State Air Traffic Control Commission, and development and reform commissions from provinces (regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government) across China, Xinjiang Production and Construction Army Corps and some sub-provincial cities, and from CAAC and its regional administrations, airlines, airport groups, service support companies and public institutions directly under CAAC, who conducted in-depth discussion and exchanges on civil aviation infrastructure construction.