20-21 November 2019

The EU-China Aviation Partnership Project (APP) held a fruitful workshop from 20 to 21 November, on the European and Chinese multimodal transport systems.

The workshop provided participants with an overview of the state of development of these systems in China and Europe, in order to exchange experiences and best practices between the two regions. The Ministry of Transport of China first presented the current status and future development of multimodal transport in China, after which the China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology and China Airport Planning & Design Institute gave an overview of intermodal transport focused on air and rail. Speakers from Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services, Lufthansa, Yunnan Airport Group, and China Eastern Airlines contributed the experiences from airports’ and airlines’ perspectives.

On the second day of the workshop, multimodality experience from France was shared by the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. Finally, participants were provided with information about air-rail transport facilitation at the new Daxing Airport, and Spring Airlines’ air-rail intermodal transport projects. The activity was concluded with a presentation by Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services on the future of mobility with new technologies.

The lively discussions and questions raised by the participants showed that the creation of interconnections between different transport modes, in particular with regard to this workshop’s focus of between air and rail, still has a lot of scope for development. The view among stakeholders present was that Europe and China have great potential to continue sharing information and lessons learned, aiming to meet the common challenge of increased mobility demand. 

More than a hundred participants attended the workshop, including representatives from among others the Chinese Ministry of Transport, EU Delegation to China, the French Civil Aviation Authority, Civil Aviation Administration of China Headquarters and Regional Administrations, regional Supervision and Administration Bureaus of Civil Aviation Administration of China, China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology, the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, International Air Transport Association, China Airport Planning & Design Institute, Daxing Airport, Yunnan Airport Group, China Eastern Airlines, Spring Airlines, Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services, Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, Lufthansa, and various other European and Chinese industry stakeholders from airports and airlines.