China’s Zhengzhou’s Xinzheng International Airport is now the country’s ninth-largest cargo airport in China, handling 370,000 tonnes of cargo in 2014. This volume has grown from only 85,800 in 2010 on the back of 40 per cent annual growth. Over half of Xinzheng’s air cargo flies internationally on more than 20 routes to other Asian countries, Europe, the US and Australia.

Much of this growth has been as a result of the rapidly developing Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone (ZAEZ) – a massive industrial and logistics development just 37 km southeast of Zhengzhou’s downtown core and where Taiwanese contract manufacturer, Foxconn produces nearly 100 million iPhones each year.

The ZAEZ was China’s first attempt at building a new urban area centred around an airport, an experimental strategy to increase the speed and efficiency with which people, materials and products can be flown in and out, enhancing connectivity and profit.