Location at heart of China
Ezhou is located at the geographical center of China .If there is a circle centered at Ezhou with a 1.5-hour-long flight time as diameter, 90 percent of the country's total economic output, 80 percent of its population and five national-level city clusters would fall within it. As an important part of the three-dimensional traffic corridor of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Ezhou Airport will effectively promote the gathering of economic resources in the central region and become an important platform for the inland areas to global. As the world's fourth and Asia's first international aviation logistics hub, Ezhou has never been so closely connected to the world. The hub project ,composed of 18.4 squrare kilometers of aviation urban area ,is considered a giant in the industry.
Ezhou Airport will function as a freight hub, a regional passenger airport, a base of SF Express and public platform. In the first phase ,two 3.600-meter 4E-level runways will be constructed ,with the future location of a third runway being reserved .In 2025,the amount of cargo and mail to be handled is expected to reach 2.65 millon tons, with the long-term goal of 7.65 million tons. According to the overall planning of the provincial government , the construction of the airport access road will be totally completed in July 2018; half of the airport field-leveling project will be completed by the end of 2018; and in June 2019,the entire field-leveling project wil be completed ,and the major construction of the project will be fully rolled out. In December 2020, the construction of the project of airport runways,terminal buildlings and ancillary facilities will be virtually completed; in September 2021,the equipment installation, debugging and completion assessment will be finished. After obtaining the operation permits ,the airport will then be ready for service.
New air silk road
The layout of global suppyl chains, the Chinese mainland, areas within Asia, areas between Asia and Europe,and areas between Asia and the United States have become the regions with the greatest growth potential for international air cargo transportation.
An official from the construction headquarters of Ezhou Airport City Area noted that the Ezhou Airport will help create a fast and efficient "air silk road "for China which will be the best channel for the regional economy to integrate into the global market and make Chinese courier giants more competitive worldwide.
Upon the completion of Ezhou Airport ,the city will become the world's fourth and Asia's first air cargo hub, which will have a major impact on air cargo in China and even the world. An airport industrial cluster centering on air transportation, international trade and export processing will take shape, creating new economic growth in Hubei and Central China.
Best inland "port "
Ezhou's goal is to develop multimodal transport and access to the world. The city enjoys convenient railway transportation; the Wuhan-Jiujiang Railway goes through it, and it is the junction of the Beijing
-Guangzhou and Beijing-Kowloon railways. A six-horizontal and four-vertical highway network has also taken shape.All these contribute to Ezhou's goal of multimodal transport . The continuous improvement of the Ezhou transportation network has brought about comprehensive and rapid economic and social development .Multimodal transportation, together with the development of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport ,will help to enhance the construction of a greater Wuhan International Passenger and Freight Double Air Hub. All of these not only make Ezhou a major channel for the opening up of the Chinese mainland, but also greatly elevate the strategic position of the Greater Wuhan City Circle in China.
The Ezhou Airport is expected to be effectively linked with high-speed railway, the Yangtze River transportation and the expressways in order to build an efficient ,fast and intelligent three-dimensional multimodal transport system.
An official from the Ezhou Airport City Area construction headquarters stated that after the completion of the Ezhou Airport ,an express passage between Gedian and the airport will be constructed ,making the airport a mere 20-minute drive away. In the future ,Gedian Development Zone will focus on the development of airport-related industries and improve logistics facilities in the Gedian Port Area and the Airport Living and Service Area .Relying on the seamless connection of multimodal transport logisitcs ,the city will accelerate the interaction among logistics ,people flow, information flow and captial flow ,so as to enable the consruction of large markets.