Flying high over the bay

Hong Kong is teaming up with other GBA cities to create the world's biggest airport cluster. They are told to prepare for regional challenges when aviation regains popularity in a post-pandemic era. Ao Yulu reports in Hong Kong.

When the central government, for the first time, voiced support in its national Five-Year Plan for Hong Kong to enhance the city's status as an international aviation hub, the city had just shown its enduring strength in the field as the world's second-busiest international cargo airport in 2020 despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It shipped 4.5 million tonnes of cargo, 145,000 tonnes less than the top-ranked Memphis International Airport.

The vigorous development of Hong Kong's aviation industry could make it a big part of the country's vision to build world-class port and airport clusters as outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). Leading the pack will be the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with 10 civilian airports, five of which handled more than 10 million passengers a year before the pandemic.

Local governments in the Bay Area, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and the Zhuhai and Dongguan authorities, have sped up cooperating in aviation industrial line and air cargo services, connecting the country's domestic and global markets and facilitating the "dual circulation" development pattern.

At the same time, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the other pillar cities of the Greater Bay Area, are eager to contribute to the national plan on aviation. In their own municipal five-year plans, the cities have set out aggressive aviation strategies, including new airport infrastructure and optimized management.

Competition is inevitable when three major cities actively explore the limits of the sky they share, but experts believe that the simultaneous presence of the three hubs in the region will not only benefit each other, but also allow them to concentrate their efforts on making the region "the largest airport cluster in the world".