"Chinese airport opening delayed a month by safety concerns"

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Airport opening delayed a month by safety concerns
The South China Morning Post


Guangzhou will postpone opening the New Baiyun International Airport
until August because of safety problems discovered during two recent
tests.

"Safety and having no risk are [important] to an airport," said
Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua . "Postponing [for] one month is not a
big deal to us."

More than 300 problems, including flaws in the airport's communications
and luggage sorting systems, were found during tests in May and this
month.

Mr Huang said the new airport faced competition from Hong Kong and
Shenzhen, but said there would be enough air traffic in the long run.

"The Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai
and Macau, only has five airports {hellip} far away from the
international standard [for the size of the region's population]."

The airport, which Mr Huang expects will handle 27 million passengers in
2010 and 80 million in 2020, cost almost 20 billion yuan to build. It is
located 28km north of Guangzhou and 17km from the present airport.

The present airport, which handled more than 16 million passengers last
year, has been operating for more than 70 years. It will close when the
new airport opens.


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