The propellers for Singapore's Changi Airports International (CAI) are whirring to life as it gears up to soar greater heights in Chinese skies.

The CAI, inked its first ever strategic partnership with the Shenzhen Airport Group on Wednesday in a bid to ride upon the Mainland's thriving aviation sector and to develop its portfolio of China's regional airports.

Shenzhen Airport owns a stake of 51% in the joint venture while CAI holds the remaining 49%. The tie-in will see both parties cashing in investments and operational assistance to medium-sized airports abounds with development potential over the next three years.

According to Chow Kok Fong, CAI's CEO, medium-sized airports with about 3 to 5 million passengers a year endeavor to expand regionally. Some of them may want to eventually develop a minute but useful international sector to draw in international traffic to bolster the development of the domestic economy, especially tourism sector, he added. Moreover, such medium-sized airport flights do not stop in Singapore.

The CAI, a subsidiary of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore which operates Changi Airport, projects a stable and sustained income inflow from 15 to 18% rather than bullish growth in profits. Passenger traffic is also expected to experience a 14% surge annually till 2010.

It has been beefing up its regional portfolio as it eyes lucrative aviation industries in India, Abu Dhabi and Vietnam. For one, it is already a stakeholder in Nanjing Lukou International Airport, the largest in Jiangsu province in East China.

Founded in 1998, Shenzhen airport is the forth busiest airport in China and ranked 34th  in the world in  respect of international air cargo transportation in 2006.

Yet, despite the new boost to its growing resume, Chow expresses that the CAI is likely to meet obstacles in penetrating the massive Chinese market with just a single partnership model under its wings. The circumstances and conditions will vary in different Chinese cities, he explained.

This level-headed sentiment has not diluted CAI's anticipation towards the growth potential of China's aviation industry. With a population of 1.3 billion, China has only 150 airports at present, as compared to the 5,600 airports in the U.S. serving just 300 million people.

Hence, Chow told the Straits Times, Singapore's daily broadsheet, that more airports will soon to come. He was confident that CAI would be "assured of a constant stream of opportunities at least in the next 20 years".

CAI will persist to scout for business opportunities in China that it can take on its own, targeting the bigger airports which prefer to team up with wholly foreign entities.