A massive new international airport has been officially declared open for business by Yang Yuanyuan, director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China.

The new Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport's operation license will begin on Thursday.

Three operational rehearsals and an official examination by the authorities have been carried out in readiness for the opening.

The existing airport will cease operation when the last flight lands before 12:00 pm tomorrow. The first flight on August 5 will take off at the new airport, 28 kilometers away from downtown Guangzhou.

"Some of the relocation work has already been finished and relocation of vital flight equipment will be finished late tomorrow, ready for the first take-off on Thursday," said Zhang Chunlin, president of the Guangdong Provincial Airport Administration Group, at a grand ceremony yesterday.

The transport work began on Wednesday, when China Southern Airlines, the airport's base airline company, moved its jumbo engines for Boeing 747's and maintenance platforms to the new site.

More than 70,000 pieces of equipment will be taken to the new airport in the next few days. All the relocation work should be finished by Saturday.

The new airport will become Guangdong's pivot airport, with the ones in Shenzhen and Zhuhai playing the role of trunk airports. Those in Shantou, Meixian and Zhanjiang will act as support airports, said Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong Province.

The airport will not only benefit from business opportunities but also be able to meet the growing demands of the world's economic globalization and stronger economic cooperation among the Greater Pearl River Delta region members, including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Sichuan, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the senior official said.

The project, which has cost 19.8 billion yuan (US$2.39 billion), began in August 2000.

The initial phase covers an area of some 15 square kilometers and is capable of handling 25 million passengers annually and 1 million tons of cargo a year.

David Pang,  Authority Chief Executive of Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport, said  Baiyun will directly compete with Chek Lap Kok due to geographical proximity.

"The two airports are overlapping in markets and both will engage in competition for passengers and cargo transport," he said.

(China Daily August 3, 2004)