Development of Airfreight Hubs in the Southern Chinese Pearl River Delta - A Comparative Analysis

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1.0, Free University of Berlin (Sinologie, Betriebswirtschaftslehre), language: English, abstract: Airfreight is an essential and highly sophisticated part of an economy's logistics infrastructure and has become one of the most effective tools to explore world markets. The overall trend towards fast reliable delivery and the transformation of China's economy along with the value chain of production, have boosted demand for air transportation. Due to these developments, the air cargo market, which is still at low levels particularly in domestic transportation, is one of the fastest growing markets in China. The regional focus of this study is on the economic powerhouse of China, the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) located in the southern province of Guangdong including Hong Kong and Macao. In many respects this is one of the most interesting economic entities of the world. Economy and infrastructure are integrated on a very high level. The GPRD features many extremes: its strong economic power, its rapid growth, the highest in China for many years, its population density and last but not least, its aviation landscape. Within radial distance of about 100 km, five international airports are at service, creating the highest airport density in the world. Three of these airports are among China's top five airports. The clear leader among them is Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), a major hub in Asia featuring the world's highest international air cargo throughput for many years. Its dominant counterpart for domestic traffic is located some 100 km north in the very heart of the PRD, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (GBIA). The strong air cargo business of HKIA, that is largely fed by PRD freight has been watched closely by Mainland administrations. Liberalised air traffic policy in recent years has rapidly expanded China's own international air cargo traffic. To support this expansive strategy, a completely new airport was built, featuring the biggest and most modern air cargo facilities in China. This new airport might take substantial business away from HKIA in the future. The first part of the study provides an overall introduction to the development of the Chinese aviation and air cargo market. Part 2 describes the macroeconomic structure of Southern China and provides an extensive overview of the GPRD air cargo market. This is followed by a detailed comparative analysis of the two airports in the center of this study and evaluates their future development prospects and the likely development of the region's air cargo landscape.