Beijing international airport has said its aims to become an international hub for the Asia-Pacific region in five years, despite the global economic slump and the aviation industry's downturn.

The airport forecast continuous passenger throughput growth this year, at 10 percent, while some airlines in other countries have gone bankrupt and airports have suffered from the economic downturn and soaring oil prices.

"The growth this year is slower than last year (18 percent), but China's aviation market is the world's aviation development engine, and its future is prosperous," Dong Zhiyi, general manager of the Beijing Capital International Airport Co Ltd, said on the sidelines of the 14th World Route Development Forum in Malaysia.

So far this year, only a couple of airlines have suspended or postponed international flights to Beijing, the airport's deputy general manager Fan Jun told China Daily.

"Many more airlines have come to us and expressed wishes to open new routes to Beijing," he said.

Designed to handle 82 million passengers annually, and with last year's passenger throughput standing at 35 million, the airport now needs to implement the international hub strategy to unleash its full potential and make full use of resources, he said.

The airport plans to attract more transfer passengers to Beijing, joining the ranks of other international hubs in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Incheon, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong.

"Beijing's advantages are the strong support from China's rapidly growing economy and the pace of project completion," the company's deputy manager Gao Lijia said.

"China gets things done quickly. While it took many years to build new terminals or runways at other airports, it took the capital airport only three years and nine months to complete the world's largest terminal building, with a 1.38 million-sq-m floor space."

The country's civil aviation has supported the hub strategy.

Earlier this year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China cut the landing fees for both international and domestic airlines by 6 percent and 22 percent, respectively, she said.

The airport now has routes leading to 91 international destinations and 96 domestic ones.

Dong expected the airport's designed capacity of 82 million to be fulfilled by 2012 or sooner as the hub strategy is carried out.

"Before that happens, the airport company will need to build a second international airport to handle the increased passenger flow," Dong said.

The location of the second Beijing international airport is still being discussed, he said.

"But the final location should be nailed down before the year's end, and the second airport should be finished five years before the current capacity is reached," he said.

(China Daily October 15, 2008)