Beijing has a shiny new international airport. Built in just four years by an army of 50,000 workers, the terminal is 3km long, with floor space a fifth bigger than all of Heathrow’s four existing and fifth planned terminals combined. It can handle 60 million passengers a year.
China is, quite literally, taking off. In 1985, total air passenger numbers were 7 million. By 2007, this had skyrocketed to 285 million. The government has announced the commissioning of an additional 97 airports by 2020. Thirteen of China’s airports are being built with a capacity of 30 million passengers each a year. (more…)