Jiaozhou's fortunes are about to fly, as the Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport nears opening.

"The Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport, located in Jiaozhou on the outskirts of Qingdao, is scheduled to go into service by the end of 2019," said Zhang Peiyu, head of the policy studies department of the Qingdao Jiaodong Airport Economic Demonstration Zone Administration.

"By then, the new airport will have 131 domestic routes, 25 international routes, connecting Jiaozhou with 99 domestic and overseas destinations. The Jiaodong airport is ranked as 4F, the internationally highest level for an airport. Big civil aviation aircraft like the Airbus 380 and Boeing 787 can take off and land at this new airport," Zhang added.

"It will be the pivot of domestic routes and the Northeast Asia's routes."

The first phase of construction is due to be completed by 2025. It is projected to handle 35 million passengers and 500,000 metric tons of cargo annually. In total, 298,000 air flights are scheduled to take off and land at the airport every year.

When the project is fully finished in 2045, the Jiaodong airport should be able to serve 55 million passengers, one million tons of cargo and 452,000 air planes annually.

The new airport will continue to focus on developing and enhancing international flights to Europe, North America and Oceania.

"Relying on the new airport, the Qingdao Jiaozhou Airport Economic Demonstration Zone is advancing its plans to develop into a modern, ecologically-friendly airport city, featuring an aviation hub, high-level airport industry and smart city," Zhang said.

According to the official plan, the 149-square-kilometer economic demonstration zone consists of several areas, such as an international airport area, airport service area, bonded logistics area, commercial area and land port area.

To forge a new economic driver for Shandong, the demonstration zone is paying close attention to attracting industries and enterprises.

"We have extremely high standards for introducing enterprises. The high-tech manufacturing industry, high-end service industry, key aviation industry and environmentally friendly industry are preferred," Zhang said.

Currently, 90 quality enterprises intend to do business with the economic demonstration zone, according to the Qingdao Jiaodong Airport Economic Demonstration Zone Administration.

"By virtue of its flights, advanced bonded area and land port, the economic demonstration zone will play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative," Zhang said.

The airport bonded area, covering an area of 1.49 sq km and with total investment of 6.5 billion yuan ($1.02 billion), will focus on developing bonded logistics, international trade, bonded processing and bonded warehousing services.

The land port of the economic zone will cooperate with the Qingdao center for CRIntermodal rail container logistics to establish a three-dimensional logistics network, integrating sea, land and air transportation.

"Building up this multimodal transportation logistics system will help Qingdao to become a world-class central terminal station and strengthen its cooperation and trade with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization," Zhang added.

To promote the streamlined experience in establishing airport economic zones, the Civil Aviation University of China has set up the China Airport Economic Demonstration Zone Development League in Jiaozhou.

The Qingdao Jiaodong Airport Economic Demonstration Zone will share its experience with other founding members and foster the integrated development of domestic airport economic demonstration zones.

(China Daily 06/09/2018 page8)