Shanghai has long sought to add a secondary airport to their airport infrastructure as Hongqiao Airport and Puding Airport have reached their capacity and can no longer handle additional flights.
Shanghai’s new secondary airport and the city’s third airport will not be located in the Shanghai Metropolitan Area rather it will be in Nantong in Suzhou Province. The Civil Aviation Administration of China will designate Nantong Airport as a secondary airport. Nantong Airport is proactively planning to leverage the advantages of Nantong to make up for the shortcomings of Shanghai’s airports in the areas of ground support, attracting airlines, and construction of airport facilities.
Nantong designated as a secondary airport
Nantong airport will be 100 kilometers from Shanghai. Drivers from the city can access the airport via the Sutong Bridge and Chongqi Bridge. Construction on the Shanghai-Nantong Railway link is currently underway and when it is completed trains will shuttle passengers between the city and the airport in approximately one hour at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.
Jiaxing Honghe Airport
Jiaxing Honghe Airport in Zhejiang Province was once a possible choice for Shanghai’s third airport. It has two main points that make it competitive; First, Jiaxing Honghe Airport is centrally located in the Shanghai-Hangzhou area and it is connected to Shanghai via a high-speed rail link that takes less than half an hour one way, Second, the cost of Jiaxing Honghe Airport’s construction is comparatively low so ticket prices for flights from the airport are expected to be lower than that from other airports in the area.
Compared with Jiaxing Honghe Airport, Nantong Airport will be much larger in scale. The official website of Nantong Airport says, “Currently airlines and air transport companies such as China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, and the Yangtze River Express Co Ltd have chosen to conduct flight training at the airport”.(Translation by David)
