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Givoni, Moshe. Chen, Xueming.

A survey of the airport’s passengers conducted by Huang, Yang, and Gu (2011) found that
30% were local residents in Shanghai, while 70% were from outside the city, most of them
are residents in the YRD region. In terms of trip purpose, 48% of passengers were tourists,
19% travel for private business purposes, 12% for public business purposes and 10% travelled
to visit relatives (11% travelled for other purposes). A different and not comparable,
unpublished survey of railway station users conducted in February 2012 by Tongji University
planning graduate students among 1834 passengers shows that 70% of rail passengers were
from Shanghai and 30% from other cities. The main trip purpose among rail passengers was
business travel (45%). The most popular mode of transport to get the railway station was
the Metro (61%) followed by taxi (15%), bus (8%) and private car (8%). Less than 5% of the
rail passengers surveyed were transfer passengers from the airport.

Although the surveys of the airport and railway station passengers are not comparable, they
nevertheless shed some light on the different characteristics of passengers using each of
the modes. In general, it appears that the rail station primarily serves Shanghai, while the
airport has a much wider catchment area than Shanghai only. In both facilities, it appears
that business travel makes up close to half of the demand. Although not the largest rail or
airport in Shanghai, the combined demand for transport services in the Hongqiao integrated
hub makes it the largest transport facility in the city.

3.3 The regulatory framework of China’s transportation system

At the central government level, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) of China is an agency
responsible for railway, road, air and water transportation regulations and is a member of
the State Council of China. Until March 2013, the Ministry of Railways was in charge of the
railways, not the MOT, and its duties were taken up by the MOT (safety and regulation),
State Railways Administration (inspection and monitoring) and China Railway Corporation
(construction, operation, and management). The State Railways Administration has several
main functions including the formulation of laws, regulations and provisions for the
supervision and administration of the railways. As the owner of China’s railroad tracks,
stations, and rolling stocks, China Railway Corporation is the national railway operator that
operates both passenger (including HSR) and freight rail services. Within China Railway
Corporation, the Transport Bureau is specifically responsible for developing the HSR
network and determining the station locations, subject to approval from the State Railways
Administration.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is the regulatory agency under the
MOT that oversees civil aviation and responsible for air transport safety. In 1987, the
CAAC’s airline operations were split into six separate airlines each named after the
geographic region where their headquarters and main operation were located. These
airlines (Tier-1) were: Air China; China Southwest Airlines; China Eastern Airlines;
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China Northwest Airlines;China Southern Airlines; and China Northern Airlines . In
addition to the above largest state-owned airlines, there are also other medium-sized
airlines (Tier-2) subsidized by local governments and other funding partners including:
Shenzhen Airlines (Major Parent Company: Air China), Xiamen Airlines (Major Parent
Company: China Southern Airlines), Shanghai Airlines (Major Parent Company: China
Eastern Airlines), Shangdong Airlines (Major Parent Company: Air China). Examples of
fully privately owned airlines (Tier-3) include Hainan Airlines, Spring Airlines, Juneyao
Airlines, Okay Airlines, and others.
In China, airports are typically owned and operated by the airport authorities of local

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