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Airline and railway disintegration in China: the case of Shanghai Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub

the regulatory bodies governing transport in China and air transport especially. The limited

evidence for air– rail integration that does exist (Table 2 and see Chen and Lin 2016) reinforces
that potential for such integration exists. When China ‘discovered’ and adopted the idea of
HSR around 2004, it also imported the idea of HSR as a competitor to the aircraft and thus the
airlines. By that, China locked itself into an inefficient use of these, largely complementary,
long-distance modes of transport, even to the point of destructive competition between the
modes (more so for the airlines – Fu, Anming, and Zheng 2012) and inefficient use of airports’
and stations’ capacity.
From a technological perspective, the difference between the modes should be apparent and
assessed from the distance and demand perspectives. In terms of distance, aircraft is a long-
range long-haul mode of transport, while HSR is short-range long-haul mode of transport.
There is an overlap in this respect between the modes on routes of about 400–1000 km.
Within this range, aircraft are suited to cater for relatively low demand routes while rail,
HSR in particular, for high-demand (dense) routes. This functional consideration of air and
rail transport advocates for a geographical division (of routes) between the modes. In turn,
it lends itself for a very different organization of China’s air and rail services, domestically
and internationally, where routes of over 1000 km are mainly served by aircraft and shorter
routes predominantly by rail. Under 1000 km, dense routes should be operated by HSR, while
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very thin routes by aircraft . In that range, conventional rail services should serve routes
with ‘medium’ demand.
In a hypothetical reorganization of air and rail transport in Shanghai, with a focus on air-rail
integration, the role of Hongqiao and Pudong airports will change. Hongqiao, since it has
excellent HSR connectivity, will become the international gateway to Shanghai and the YRD
region and will offer a seamless transfer between a range of international (air) destinations
and domestic (rail) destinations – becoming the first truly ‘integrated hub’ as depicted in
Figure 1. For the same reason, Hongqiao airport should become a transfer point between
domestic long-haul (aircraft) and short-haul (HSR) routes. Pudong airport, under this new
organization of services will become a pure origin-destination airport for those wishing to
travel to/from Shanghai and not beyond. The relatively high demand for travel foreseen
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between the airports (Table 3), currently served by a metro , and the consideration of an
expensive Maglev line for that is evident for the inefficiency of the current functional roles
of the airports. If HSR is supposed to accelerate the regional economic integration in China
(Zhang and Nie 2010 in Chen 2012) organizing in this way the functions of the two airports
should be conductive. Furthermore, it will allow Shanghai to develop a true hub airport,
using the Integrated Hub model (Figure 1). Fu, Anming, and Zheng (2012) argue that for the
Chinese aviation industry there are multiple benefits from transforming the airlines’ network
to hub and spoke networks.

Extending further the hypothetical re-organization of Shanghai’s Hongqiao hub and adhering
to the Integrated (air-rail) Hub model, suggests that Hongqiao railway station should also
serve conventional railway services to further maximize the inland reach, or catchment
area, of the airport/hub. As Givoni and Dobruszkes (2013) show, most of the demand for
HSR seems to originate from the slower, conventional railway. A truly Integrated Transport
Hub should connect all transport networks and offer a seamless transfer between all these
respective networks. It is such an integrated transport hub that should be the backbone of
China’s transportation network with such a hub in each of the mega-city regions, and where
rail and HSR services mainly complement and not compete with the aircraft.
The above suggestion does not mean the end to competition in the Chinese airline industry.
Rather, it suggests, as alluded to by Perl and Goetz (2015) and Fu, Anming, and Zheng
(2012), a reorientation of China’s airlines away from domestic services and more towards
international services. In the competition with foreign airlines, an adoption of the air-rail

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