"Beijing airport will be ready for 2008 Olympics/ officials"

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Beijing airport will be ready for 2008 Olympics/ officials
Agence France-Presse


SINGAPORE, (AFP) - A three-billion-dollar expansion of Beijing's airport
is on track to be finished well before the city's hosting of the 2008
Olympics, senior Chinese aviation officials said here Wednesday.

"According to schedule, the airport expansion will be finished by the
end of 2007," Yang Guoqing, vice minister of the General Administration
of Civil Aviation of China, told reporters at a business forum.

"By May of 2008, everything will be ready for operation. According to
the current progress of the development, everything is on schedule and
actually sometimes ahead of schedule.

"We expect the new airport is going to be a very modern and very
effective and practical airport."

Chen Guoxing, vice president of the Beijing Capital Airport Holding
company that operates the airport, said passenger traffic was projected
to hit 35 million this year from around 25 million in 2003.

By 2008, the passenger traffic at the Beijing airport is forecast to
reach 42.23 million, rising to 60 million by 2015.

The expansion work, costing 25 billion yuan (3.0 billion dollars),
includes the construction of a third runway that will be 3,800 metres
(12,540 feet) long and 60 metres (198 feet) wide, as well as a new
terminal building.

A modern 25-kilometre (15.5-mile) railway and another expressway to
connect the airport to the city will also be built, Chen said.


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