Most small Chinese airports losing money
The majority of China’s small airports are losing money, but this will not stop more being constructed to cater for increasing demand, Xinhua has reported.
Feng Jianhua, General Manager of Mianyang Airport, was quoted by the China Daily saying that 91% of the 103 small airports – those that handle less than 1 million passengers annually – are losing money. Feng reportedly added that of the airport handling less than 500,000 passengers a year, none achieved break-even.
The total passengers handled by small airports across the country accounted for 6.4% of the total handled at all the country’s airports in 2006. In contrast, the country’s 10 largest airports handled 60% of total passenger traffic that year.
New airport projects worth CNY200 billion are due to open in 2009-10, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) was reported saying. China plans to increase the number of civil airports from 160 in 2008 to 244 this year.
The CAAC hopes to address the problems of small airports by giving subsidies to airlines and airports. Yang Guoqing, CAAC’s deputy chief, said last month that more subsidies will be given to airlines increasing flights to 100 small airports.
Wang Jian, Secretary General of China Civil Airports Association, added that small airports do not the pulling power to attract airlines to operate flights there.
“If they can secure one scheduled flight each day, it would be fantastic,” he was quoted saying.
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