Tuesday 30 October 2007

China's airport to have new third runway

In an effort to cope with next year's increase in passenger numbers for the Olympics, Beijing airport have opened a third runway.

This is part of a major revamp to include a bigger new terminal opening next February.

"The airport handles 1100 arrival and departure flights every day. That will probably rise to 1500 ... to 1600 and peak at 1900 during the Olympics next year, so the third runway is much needed," a spokesperson for Xinhua news agency said.

The Airbus A380 will easily be accommodated on the runway and the new terminal will be one of the world's largest terminals.

China are expecting at least 500,000 tourists next year and the existing airport terminal handled 48 million passengers last year way above its capacity of 35 million.

The new terminal will be expected to handle 60 million passengers a year.

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