NINE lawmakers jointly submitted a motion to the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress during the legislature’s annual session, urging the government to build an airport in the city’s eastern region, the Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

    One of the lawmakers, Luo Binbin, said that the development of large-sized aircraft in China is making great progress, which will bring down the prices of flight tickets and drive up the demand for flights in the future.

    He said that compared to the four airports in Beijing and two airports in Shanghai, the singular airport in Shenzhen won’t be enough to cope with airline passengers’ needs in the future.

    Luo said that building an airport in the city’s eastern region would benefit both Shenzhen and the neighboring city Huizhou. He said that the “Going East Strategy” would be fully realized when an airport boosts the development of the eastern region, after railway and road construction projects are completed near the airport.

    Luo said Shenzhen International Airport in Bao’an District has limited space for more runways. He said that building an airport in the eastern region would complement the existing airport in Bao’an and benefit the tourism industry in eastern Shenzhen as well.

    The lawmakers suggested that the airport be named “Shenzhen Longgang Airport.” They added that the city government could cooperate with the Huizhou government to build the airport by using land resources in Huizhou.

    (Zhang Yang)