In order to attract more Chinese investors, major British airports have begun a series of renovation projects.

Birmingham International Airport is now extending its runway in order to accommodate direct flights from China.

Paul Kehoe, the airport's chief executive director, said that discussions had been held with "three or four Chinese airlines", but no agreements had been reached so far.

He expressed his hope that the airport could "connect with Shanghai and Beijing", while also mentioning Guangzhou, Birmingham's sister city, and Chongqing, China's most populous city.

In February, Colin Matthews, chief executive of the British Airports Authority, warned that capacity constraints were "damaging the UK economy when the country can least afford it" after the number of passengers flying between the UK and China fell for a fourth consecutive month.

London's Heathrow Airport is full to capacity and cannot take on new routes. Its traffic to China dropped 0.7 percent year-on-year in January.

"Business leaders in the world's fastest-growing economies say they are put off investing in the UK because of a lack of direct flights," said Matthews.

A month later, Hong Kong Airlines launched its first-ever service between Hong Kong and London's Gatwick Airport. Air China also launched direct flights between Beijing and Gatwick in May.

In early July, Manchester Airports Group unveiled a 650 million pound plan to develop the UK's first "Airport City".

Since the launch of Airport City in January, interest from China and the rest of East Asia has been strong and Manchester Airports Group is aiming to build on this early interest with the creation of a 32-page Mandarin Chinese promotional document, detailing the 465,000 square meter Airport City scheme.

Airport City will also improve the viability of new direct passenger services between northwestern England and China.

"Airport City has the potential to act as a catalyst and serve as a magnet to Manchester, not just for Chinese and Far Eastern businesses looking to enter the UK and European markets, but also to airlines to operate direct passenger services between the north of England and China," said John Atkins MAG's airport city director.

zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn