CHINA. International passenger traffic at China’s mainland airports climbed by +14.1% to reach 30.56 million in 2005, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).
The total number of passengers using the country’s airports rose by +17.5% to 284.35 million. Aircraft movements grew +14.7% to 3.06 million last year.
Airports in three major cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, handled 37.3% of the country’s total air passengers last year. And the number of airports with annual passenger traffic of over a million stood at 42, three more than a year earlier.
China has 135 airports in 133 mainland cities, excluding Hong Kong and Macao.
In separate news, China will spend 140 billion yuan (US$17.4 billion) over the next five years to improve its airports and build new facilities to cope with an expected +14% annual growth in domestic air traffic, a senior civil aviation official told Wall Street Journal Asia.
The government will continue to enlarge China’s three biggest airports, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to help them maintain their role as the main international hubs. Other airports set for expansion include Shenzhen, Chengdu, Haikou and Xi’an.
The CAAC plans to improve the country’s main airports before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. By 2010 the mainland is expected to have about 186 airports.
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