3
Problem
CONFIDENTIAL
USE OF SHENZHEN AIRPORT
CRC 5/92
1.
In
the light of the commencement of commercial operations at Shenzhen Airport, there is a need to examine the implications for operations at Kai Tak and on Dragonair's services of facilitating transport links between Hong Kong and
Shenzhen Airports.
Background
2.
Prime
designed
to
Shenzhen Airport was officially opened by the Chinese
Minister Li Peng on 12 October 1991. The Shenzhen Airport
has a 3400m runway and a multi-purpose passenger terminal
building
meet an annual handling capacity of 8
million passengers. The Shenzhen Airport authorities expect to handle 1.6m passengers and 24,000 tonnes of cargo during 1992.
Domestic commercial services started on 25 November 1991 and at
present 17 scheduled services per week to four cities within the
mainland are in operation (details at Annex A). The Shenzhen
Airport authorities have indicated that they hope to see
domestic services to 19 major provincial cities established and
international services started in 1992.
However, for
international access, it would be subject to the approval of
CAAC and the State Council and no information is as yet
available on whether such approval has been given. Informal
sources suggest CAAC will be difficult and it may be some time
before it authorizes such access.
CONFIDENTIAL