Shenyang Airport

Dalian, Harbin and Shenyang airports propel China's northeast revival as region to see largest FDI

Those in the know are aware that China's new growth is out in the west, in cities like Chongqing, where Finnair launched services in 2012, or Chengdu, which British Airways will serve later in 2013. This singular focus on the frontier west, however, obscures China's northeast: a growing section in China's corner that many are unaware of or assume that, being in eastern China, it has slower growth.The former rustbelt region is movign ahead.

The region is anchored by Liaoning province, which is not only growing but forecast by the Economist Intelligence Unit to be China's largest recipient of foreign direct investment by 2014.

The key airports are Dalian and Shenyang in Liaoning, as well as Harbin, in neighbouring Heilongjiang province. Yet, despite the strong growth indicators, the outlook for international air services is mixed. Certainly, this is China and growth there will be strong, but relative to other regions, perhaps not as enticing. Liaoning and Heilongjiang are in the thick of northeast Asia, a mere one or two hour flight from mega-hubs at Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon, whose hometown carriers have a large presence in northeast China as they can efficiently provide connections.

In mainland China's de facto international hub, Hong Kong, typically expansionist Dragonair does not serve any of the northeast airports. Lufthansa serves Shenyang, which SIA's Scoot will soon serve as well.

Start-up Saipan Air looks to re-establish Japanese traffic, but China may be more promising

The Northern Mariana Islands is set to receive its first home carrier when Saipan Air launches on 01-Jul-2012, initially serving Japan's Tokyo and Osaka as well as China's Beijing and Shenyang. Backed by Tan Holdings, Saipan's largest private employer, the carrier seeks to gain back the Japanese traffic the islands lost after Japan Airlines withdrew in Oct-2005, taking out 182,000 seats annually. Japanese arrivals, which accounted for 71% of arrivals, immediately declined by 25% and have been shrinking since.

With only Asiana and Delta Air Lines now directly linking Saipan and Japan, Saipan Air could make large inroads, but the three low-cost carriers starting in Japan this year could easily overtake the legacy carriers in Saipan's almost entirely leisure market. Meanwhile China has been a growing market for the Northern Mariana Islands. Not only are LCCs there nascent but the full service carriers are largely focussed on domestic and high-profile international flying.

Beijing to overtake London as world’s largest aviation hub. Massive new airport planned

Congested Beijing is building fresh airport capacity that will see it become the world's largest aviation hub, leaving London - currently the world's busiest system of airports - and even ambitious Dubai in its wake. Beijing's new airport at Daxing south of the city could have up to nine runways and ultimate capacity to handle around 370,000 passengers per day, or a staggering 135 million passengers p/a. This would increase capacity at Beijing area airports to around 220 million p/a - almost a quarter of a billion passengers.

Shenzhen Airlines plans ambitious narrowbody fleet expansion, new international routes

Shenzhen Airlines is planning to grow its fleet to over 170 aircraft by the end of 2015 as it taps into rapid growth in its home market as well six other regional bases across China. Over the same time period Shenzhen Airlines plans to expand its fledgling international network to over 20 routes.