HK to manage Zhuhai airport
3 August 2006
The Hong Kong Airport Authority will manage Zhuhai's international airport for the next 20 years under a joint-venture agreement with the Zhuhai municipal government, in which it will take a 55% controlling stake, the South China Morning Post reported. The airport, on the western side of the Pearl River, has an annual capacity of 15 million passengers, but just 700,000 people were carried last year. In comparison, Hong Kong airport Chek Lap Kok handles roughly 120,000 passengers a day, half of which are traveling to or from the mainland, its fastest-growing sector. The Airport Authority also purchased 35% of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport last year for US$245 million as part of its bid to capture a share of the mainland's emerging demand for low-cost air travel. The joint venture was among a series of agreements announced at a meeting of the Hong Kong-Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference.