Chongqing Jiangbei International airport is seeking to take advantage of the low-cost travel boom in China and is mulling setting up a dedicated low-cost terminal in the future.

Speaking to FlightGlobal at World Routes in Barcelona, chief financial officer Hu Chun says that the airport is currently in negotiations with relevant low-cost carriers "to develop an optimised scheme".

"Low-cost carriers have different requirements for operation flow, supporting facilities and equipment, as well as service standards compared with full-service airlines," she says. "In the future, we are looking to provide special terminals and areas for low-cost carriers."

To support its plans, Hu says that low-cost carriers, such as West Air and Spring Airlines, accounted for 5.7 million of Chongqing's total passenger handling capacity in 2016 – or 16% of the total number of passenger handling – a figure she describes as "a large market proportion".

Hu says that previous resources used on the recently-opened third terminal and runway "have been reallocated", thus allowing Chonqing to look into its next phase of expansion.

She says Chongqing enjoys a favorable geographic location, at what she describes as the "golden intersection" between three air channels of "great potential" in China: Southwest-Northeast; South-Northwest; and East-West.

"Chongqing Airport has created good service capability, improved our service effectiveness and enhanced the supply of airport resources, hence increasing the attraction of the airport to surrounding passengers, especially those who are price-sensitive," says Hu. "We are working with other major airports in the Western China to build the region into a low-cost air transportation hub."

Source: Cirium Dashboard

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