BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Eight in every ten
Chinese will live within 100 kilometers from air transport by 2020 under
government plans to build more than 90 airports in the next 12 years.
China will have 192 airports by 2010 and 244 by 2020,
up from 147 by the end of 2006, the General Administration of Civil Aviation
said in a statement on its website.
The 97 new airports planned between 2007 and 2020
would cost an estimated 450 billion yuan (61.6 billion U.S. dollars), it said.
By 2020, 82 percent of China's
population, which would contribute 96 percent of its gross domestic product
(GDP), would live within 100 kilometers or a 90-minute drive from an airport.
Currently, more than 60 percent of the 1.3 billion people live within the range.
China is expected to have 1.45 billion people in
2020, according to the government's population projections.
HK airport posts
record traffic figures in 2007
HONG KONG, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The
number of passengers traveling through the Hong Kong International Airport and
the volume of cargo handled by the airport both grew significantly to reach
record high in 2007, the airport authority said Wednesday.
The number of passengers at the southern Chinese
city's airport in 2007 climbed 7.5 percent year-on-year to reach 47.8 million
while cargo volume went up 4.5 percent to 3.7 million tons, said Stanley Hui,
chief executive officer of Hong Kong Airport Authority. Full story
Beijing Airport:
"we are not so bad" after critical report
BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Beijing
Capital International Airport has hit back at criticism from a business website
that it was one of the worst in the world.
Dong Zhiyi, general manager of the Beijing Capital
International Airport, told Xinhua on Wednesday that official statistics showed
that 86.28 percent of the flights taking off there were on schedule, refuting
claims from Forbes.com that it was the second worst airport in the world. Full story
New terminal building at Beijing airport ready for operation
BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- In preparation for a passenger surge during the 2008 Olympics next August, the newly-built No. 3 terminal building at the main airport in Chinese capital has got ready for operation.
"The terminal building will be put to use in two phases. The first phase is expected to start trial operation on Feb. 29," said an official at the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA). Full story
