Sanming Shaxian Airport to Open for Commercial Flight in March
By Lena Ge, China Aviation Daily | Feb. 22, 2016
|
Sanming Shaxian Airport, northwest of Fujian Province, will open its door for commercial flights in March 2016.
Juneyao Airlines will launch a new round-trip service between Sanming and Shanghai Pudong on March 7, marking the first scheduled flight of the Fujian Province's seventh civilian airport.
The Shanghai-based carrier said in a statement that the 4x-weekly flights would be operated by Airbus A320 aircraft every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Starting March 7, flight HO1109 is scheduled to depart from Shanghai Pudong at 8:55 a.m. and arrive in Sanming at 10:35 a.m., with the return flight ho1110 leaving Sanming Shaxian Airport at 11:35 a.m. and landing in Shanghai at 1:00 p.m.
Built in line with Category 4C standard, the airport features a single 2600m x 45m runway and a 6000sqm terminal with capacity to handle 430,000 passengers p/a by 2020.
Sanming Shaxian Airport, located in Fenggang sub-district of Sha County in Sanming, was firstly constructed in 1995, but stopped construction in 1998 in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis after 160 million yuan was already spent. Construction resumed in 2005 with private investment, and the airport was declared the first privately owned airport in China, but soon stopped again for undisclosed reasons. In 2009 construction started for the third time, this time back with government funding. The total cost of the project is estimated at 2.5 billion yuan (US$403.2 million).