Higher safety standards, the surge of passenger and freight traffic and environment issue will reshape the landscape of China's civil aviation as the country is experiencing another boom of airport building, said an industry leader in Beijing on Sep. 26, 2012.

The statistics of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) shows that more than 230 million people and 4.4 million tons of freight travelled by Chinese flights in 2011 with a growth rate higher than 12 percent.

Facing the increasing demand on air travelling, China has decided to build 82 new airports and refurbish 101 by 2015. Besides the projects in airfield, China will purchase around 2,000 new aircraft to increase the number of planes in service to reach 4,700 before 2015.

An urgent challenge emerging with the booming civil aviation industry is the concern about the impact to the environment. The big three in Chinese carriers produced about 51.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2011.

"The trend is towards more low carbon practices in the daily operation of airport," said Chen Tianzhi, world's leading airfield lighting maker ADB Airfield Solutions general manager for China.

According the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for Chinese civil aviation industry, the energy consumption and emission of carbon dioxide per tonkilometer shall be 3 percent lower on average than the previous five years.

Opened in June as one of the youngest airport in China, Kunming Changshui International Airport in China's southwest Yunnan province adopts a number of high-tech and environment-friendly facilities.

For example, the airport equips its runways with led lights instead of traditional incandescent, which are more durable and is able to reduce as much as 90 percent energy consumption.

"As the market is expanding, price is not the most important factor that affects airport operators' buying behavior," said Chen, "They have realized that they can use innovative solutions to achieve high efficiency, low cost and being green at the same time."