The world’s fastest-growing aviation market is driving major airport projects throughout the region
Once upon a time, seemingly not all that long ago, Tokyo Narita was the business fliers’ linchpin as far as Asian connections were concerned. Things have changed. Although both Narita and Haneda International are still important, the news out of NRT has been comparatively quiet of late, this as HND plays a changing role on the transpacific scene.
However, new aircraft technology is enabling so-called ‘long thin’ routes to a greater number of destinations, bypassing traditional Asia Pacific stopover points. In addition the region’s rapid economic growth is mirrored in the flourishing passenger count, prompting some nations to do more than just keep up.
Here are five of Asia’s primary hubs – four currently in operation and one in the offing – that have planned well beyond the current numbers, carving out their place as vital destinations in the world’s aviation network.
Taiwan Taoyuan InternationalIf flat out efficiency is important to you as a business traveler this bit of news might steer you towards one of Asia’s ‘stealth’ hubs: Taiwan Taoyuan International is recent recipient of the world’s most efficient airport award. Airports Council International rendered the honors for 2015. In what was almost a double play, ACI also said TPE came in second best for airport service quality in 2015.
TPE (that’s Taoyuan’s airport code) is home base for a couple of major international players: EVA Air and China Airlines (not to be confused with the People’s Republic of China’s Air China).
This begs the question of why TPE isn’t seen in the same competitive light as Hong Kong International, Singapore Changi and Seoul Incheon International when it comes to public perception. TPE handled some 42.3 million passengers in 2016, making it the planet’s 11th busiest airport in terms of international passengers.
TPE is a two runway, two – soon to be three – terminal affair. Terminal 3 is set to open in 2020. T3 alone will accommodate 45 million fliers per year. It’s being billed as one of the most expensive construction projects in the history of modern Taiwan. To help passengers connecting over TPE, an inter-terminal rail project is now in the works.
Business travelers may well get their first introduction to Taoyuan via a flight on China Airlines or EVA. Over the past couple of years EVA has been growing its fleet and expanding its reach with service to Houston Bush Intercontinental and Chicago O’Hare International. Both IAH and ORD are major hubs for United Airlines. That’s important, because UA is a major Star Alliance member, as is EVA. That facilitates connections, frequent flier points transfer and airport club access.
EVA is polishing its product, adding ground staff so fliers can better navigate places like Toayuan. Electronic maps at check-in counters point the way to VIP lounges and departure gates.
EVA’s new Chicago-Taipei trip is a full 15 hours, 40 minutes flown with the carrier’s new Boeing 777-300ER. The extended range Triple-Seven sports 39 business class, 56 premium economy and 238 economy seats.
Each Royal Laurel (business) class flier on EVA gets direct aisle access on all transpacific flights. Upon boarding they’re greeted with something unique: cold-press pineapple juice garnished with mint. The juice is accompanied by Godiva chocolates and equally sweet service.
Seoul Incheon InternationalNorth of Taoyuan some 910 miles is another hyper-efficient airport: Seoul’s Incheon International. Incheon officials say that departures take 19 minutes and arrivals 12 minutes on average, far faster than at most airports. Customs processing is really rapid too. Add to speed accuracy: ICN contends its mishandled baggage rate is a mere 0.0001 percent.
To underscore how all these kudos work together to speed business travelers on their way, Skytrax rates Incheon as the world’s best international transit airport.
With around 50 million fliers annually, it’s a bit of a surprise that ICN is just 8th among Asia’s busiest passenger airports. One reason why: close-in Gimpo International handles a significant chunk of regional international flying to comparatively nearby destinations such as Taipei, Osaka, Beijing and Shanghai.
ICN is home base for both Korean Air and Asiana, a pair of service-intensive carriers.
Thirty miles can make for a pricey taxi ride. Best bet for cost-conscious business travelers may be to take the train into town. All stop and express rail links ICN with Seoul’s city center station. If you crave flat out speed there’s the maglev. It will rocket you to Yongyu Station, from which you can hop on an AREX train and Seoul’s subway system.
Incheon’s essential advantage is speed. But it’s not without amenities. Year after year, the airport consistently wins awards as best duty-free shopping in the world.
Singapore ChangiIf your idea of airport shopping goes beyond picking up plastic trinkets for the kids back home, SIN just might be your Asian airfield of choice. Those construction cranes you see pecking away at the center of Changi hover over the site of a $1.7 billion project dubbed Jewel at Changi set for a 2019 debut. It’s a shopping, eating and entertainment complex that just might redefine what it means to “pick something up at the airport.”
The Strait Times reports Jewel will be a five-story affair replete with a waterfall, some 2,500 trees and 100,000 shrubs. The flora is from an assortment of countries.
It’s the effect all this will have on passengers that’s key here. After hours cooped up in an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet all this indoor nature should be rejuvenating – to the soul, if not the pocketbook. Jewel will have about 300 places to eat, drink and go shopping.
Finding Jewel should be relatively simple. It’s accessible from SIN’s terminals via air-conditioned bridges fitted with “travelators.” All of this is encased under a massive glass-enclosed dome – the better to bathe the plantings beneath.
Jewel should add even more luster to Changi’s allure. The 2017 World Airport Awards just named SIN World’s Best Airport for the fifth year running. The contest takes into account everything from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration.
Hong Kong InternationalFor many of us gray-bearded business travelers it seems only yesterday that Hong Kong International Airport supplanted the venerable Kai Tak as the former British colony’s aerodrome. Now comes word the new airport just launched a massive construction project to build a third runway.
It’s going to be almost eight years before fliers see the fruits of all that labor, but once the dust settles there will be not just a third runway, but associated taxiways and tarmac as well. Capping it all will be a new passenger boarding building replete with 57 boarding positions. T2 is going to be expanded and the airport’s Automated People Mover lengthened as well. The idea is to transport you from T2 out to the new passenger building in 2.5 minutes.
Upon completion of all this work HKG will be able to handle an additional 30 million passengers per year. Meanwhile, work continues apace on HKG’s Midfield Development project. Twenty more aircraft parking positions will allow the airport to accommodate at least ten million more passengers per year.
New Beijing AirportSet for opening in 2019 is Beijing’s long-awaited new megaport. In terms of sheer size it may well be the planet’s largest aerodrome, covering some 300 square miles of terra firma.
Initially the new airport will debut with 78 gates. These will be arrayed across a couple of levels. To keep things simple, one floor will be for international flights, the other for domestic.
The signature theme building for the new airfield is a starfish-shaped terminal. At the six-pronged epicenter of the starfish is a retail center. Underneath this all lies a rail connector.
Compared to the current Beijing Capital International Airport, the new airport will be farther afield – 28 miles from city center compared to 15.5 miles for Capital. However, don’t look for Capital to go away when the new airport opens.
Instead China envisions the two of them serving as a one-two punch for China. Li Jiaxiang, director of the country’s Bureau of Aviation, says together they’ll be able to handle 150 million passengers a year. That’s far more than any single airport on the planet.
But as business travelers know, it’s the smaller (one uses the term comparatively when it comes to the People’s Republic) that are attracting nonstop service from the United States these days and according to China’s Civil Aviation Administration, the country intends to construct an astonishing 66 new airports over the next five years or so. Whether Beijing’s massive new airport slows or speeds that construction remains to be seen.
US Carriers Forge China LinksWhat decidedly doesn’t remain to be seen any longer is the response of US airlines to the still pepper-pot hot Chinese market. American and Delta in particular have recently shelled out substantial sums to purchase interests in – respectively – Guangzhou-based China Southern and Shanghai-based China Eastern.
Delta’s investment of $450 million gives the airline a 3.55 percent stake in China Eastern, allowing both airlines “to compete more effectively on routes between the US and China,” according to a statement issued by the two carriers. In addition to more transpacific flights, Delta moved from Terminal 1 at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport to co-locate with China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines.
More recently, American Airlines bought a $200 million equity in China Southern, laying the foundation for what an AA statement calls a “long-term relationship between two of the world’s biggest carriers.” American president Robert Isom elaborates: “Our networks are highly competitive, with the potential to offer unmatched China Southern and American customers an unmatched range of destinations in two critical markets.”
Look for the two airlines later this year to start code sharing and launch interline agreements, agreements that will allow fliers access to more almost 40 destinations beyond Beijing and more than 30 from Shanghai.
At this present moment American’s footprint in and to the People’s Republic is limited – daily nonstop service from Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International to both Beijing Capital International and Shanghai Pudong Airport. Hong Kong is served nonstop on American from DFW and LAX. All American’s flights to Beijing and Shanghai are operated on the airline’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, while the service to Hong Kong is handled aboard Boeing 777-300s.
American’s move is particularly important. Of all the ‘Big Three’ US international airlines, AA’s footfall in China has been the softest. The China Southern deal would change the equation. United continues to dominate the transpac from the US, with nonstop service not only to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, but 787 flights from its San Francisco gateway to a slew of so-called ‘secondary cities’ such as Chengdu.
Today, aviation markets tend to follow technology – in this case the Dreamliner and the A350. Look for the tally of those secondary cities to grow as more of these next-generation aircraft take wing, bypassing traditional transit points such as Toyko Narita.