PR97019

EZHOU, China, July 15, 2022 /Xinhua=KYODO JBN/--

Huahu Airport in central Chinese province Hubei's Ezhou City, the first

professional freight hub airport in Asia and the fourth in the world, is

scheduled to be put into operation on July 17. By then, departing from Ezhou,

passengers and goods can reach the whole country overnight and reach overseas

destinations in two days.

Ezhou Huahu Airport is positioned as a freight hub, passenger transport branch

line, public platform and cargo navigation base. It took eight years for the

airport to develop from preliminary planning in 2014 to completion and

operation in 2022. The investment of the airport project totaled 30.842 billion

yuan, and the project package consists of three parts: the airport project, the

transshipment center and the SF airlines base project, and the oil supply

project, according to Ezhou Converged Media Center.

In August 2015, Hubei international logistics central hub project was listed as

the top project in the province. On September 17, 2020, Hubei and the Civil

Aviation Administration of China held a working meeting in Wuhan. The two sides

decided to jointly promote Wuhan Tianhe Airport to become an international

gateway hub in the central region and Ezhou Huahu Airport to become a

first-class aviation freight transport hub, forming a dual-hub for passenger

and cargo aviation with the two airports in a bid to create "a going-out

channel in the sky" in Hubei.

Ezhou Huahu Airport is designed to serve a passenger throughput of 1 million

visits and a cargo and mail throughput of 2.45 million tons in 2025. The

airport operation support level is 4E. In this phase, two long-distance

parallel runways and taxiway systems will be built in the east and west. The

runways are 3,600 meters long and 45 meters wide, with a runway spacing of

1,900 meters.

A freight transport transit center with an area of nearly 700,000 square

meters, a terminal building with an area of 15,000 square meters and 124

stations will also be built, which can match the Memphis International Airport

in the United States.

The test flight was carried out at the end of March, the airport was put into

operation in the middle of July, and the cargo function will be fully opened at

the end of November.

According to the Hubei International Logistics Airport Co., Ltd., after the

airport was put into operation, the 1.5-hour flight circle can cover 90 percent

of China's economic aggregate and 80 percent of the population. Huahu Airport

will open 7 routes and 9 destinations from Ezhou to Beijing, Shanghai,

Shenzhen, Xiamen and Kunming in the initial stage of passenger transport.

For cargo transport, the airport will open domestic services first and then

international services. Two routes from Ezhou to Shenzhen and Shanghai will be

opened in the first phase. After the international cargo transport function is

fully in operation, international cargo routes to destinations such as Osaka

and Frankfurt will be opened. The airport will gradually grow into a

world-class aviation freight transport hub, and strive to build a new logistics

highland in China and even the Asia-Pacific region.

As a major national productivity project, Huahu Airport shoulders the

responsibility of participating in the global aviation logistics competition on

behalf of China, and is the most important project of Hubei Province, according

to a senior official in Ezhou. After being put into operation, the airport will

surely become the key support for Hubei to build a pioneering area for building

a new development pattern in China.

Source: Ezhou Converged Media Center

Image Attachments Links:

   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=425438

   Caption: Ezhou Huahu Airport