BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- China has been focusing on enhancing the capacities of its civil airports, the key infrastructures in sustaining economic growth and supply chains at home and abroad.

The following facts and figures indicate how the country is facilitating the development of airports, especially hub airports, with the latest intensive moves:

-- The Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in south China's Guangdong Province on Sept. 27 started an expansion project for this major air hub.

The expansion includes multiple major sectors of airport operation, such as airfield engineering, air traffic control and fuel supply. It will enable the hub airport to handle up to 775,000 flight movements, 120 million passengers and 3.8 million tonnes of air cargo per year by 2030, with further potential ahead.

This is a major move in boosting the construction of a world-class airport cluster amid the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development.

-- A major airport in northwest China on Sept. 9 began the construction of the third phase of its expansion project as local authorities seek to build an air transport corridor along the Silk Road.

With an investment of 33.44 billion yuan (about 4.89 billion U.S. dollars), the third-phase expansion of the Zhongchuan International Airport in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, is expected to be completed in four years.

The project is designed to help the airport handle 38 million passengers and 300,000 tonnes of cargo and mail annually.

-- An airport expansion project has started in July in Xi'an to boost the development of the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province into an international air hub.

The expansion project of Xi'an Xianyang International Airport will make it the largest airport construction project in northwest China in terms of the building area and investment scale. It will also facilitate Xi'an's role as an international air hub and help Shaanxi Province to better participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

It is designed to expand both the airport's passenger and cargo capacity. It will enable the airport to handle 83 million passenger trips and 1 million tonnes of air cargo per year by 2030.

-- South China's island province Hainan is accelerating the construction work of the expansion project of Haikou Meilan International Airport to serve the development of its free trade port.

The new project will help the airport achieve its annual throughput target of 4.2 million international passengers initially, while the number is expected to reach 10 million in the future.

It is anticipated to better serve Hainan's development as an international trade hub and a free trade port with a comprehensive modern transportation system.

-- The total sum of China's civil airports reached 238 by the end of 2019, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

China maintained the world's second-largest civil aviation market, with 660 million passenger trips in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 7.9 percent, according to the CAAC. Enditem

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