Passenger and Cargo Transportation Competition in China’s Civil Aviation Airports

Our research comprehensively analyzed the current condition of China's national and regional air transport market in order to reveal the problems in Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)'s economic development. We selected 99 representative domestic airports and studied the distribution of airports nationwide using airport competitiveness index and cluster analysis. Our research indicated that China's civil airports held a distinct aggregation feature, which formed a co-developing relationship among air hubs and regional airports. Meanwhile, the `Cargo Hub Effect' was even more significant. However, the system faced with various problems, including uncoordinated airport distribution, discordant passenger and cargo transportation, and unbalanced development among regions.