(Yicai) June 27 -- Shanghai Airport Authority, the operator of the city's two major airports, said it has penned an agreement with the government of nearby Nantong to jointly construct a new airport there, forming the 'Third Airport' in Shanghai's global aviation hub.

The two cities inked the deal for the airport in 2020, Shanghai Airport announced yesterday. The new airport will be built by a joint venture between Shanghai Airport and Nantong City Construction Development, which was established in February last year.

In January last year, Shanghai's market regulators announced that the JV will be set up to invest, build, and operate an airport without disclosing the exact airport.

According to the construction plan, the airport will have an initial annual throughput of 40 million passengers, which will be increased to 80 million in the future. Located 120 kilometers away from Shanghai, it will have two long-distance runways.

Shanghai Airport also unveiled the progress of Shanghai Pudong International Airport expansion project. The fourth-stage expansion will be completed early next month, with the T3 terminal to commence construction by the end of this year, helping the airport achieve a passenger throughput of 130 million a year when completed, it noted.

The Yangtze River Delta region has seven airports, each with an annual passenger throughput of over 10 million, including Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Pudong Airport.

The airport density in the Yangtze River Delta region is very high, analysts pointed out. It is a great concern of the industry to maximize the overall interest in the area, relying on the collaborative development of airports managed by different administrative regions, they added.

Shanghai and Nantong co-building the new airport is of great significance to the aviation network in the former and the Yangtze River Delta region and will profoundly impact the economic development and traffic integration in the area, the analysts noted.

Editor: Martin Kadiev