China needs 216 new airports by 2035: report

BEIJING -- China aims to add 216 new airports by 2035 and develop some regional transport hubs, China Daily quoted the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) as saying on Tuesday.

As of the end of October, China had 234 civil airports and is expected to have around 450 by 2035, according to a civil aviation development guideline from the CAAC, the newspaper reported.

The demand for passenger transport in China will account for one-fourth of the world's total and exceed that of the United States by 2035, making China the largest air passenger market in the world, the guideline said.

It also said world-class airports will be built in the Yangtze River Delta region, in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and in the Chongqing and Chengdu city cluster.

"Service has improved substantially, but existing airports are far from adequate and are unevenly distributed throughout the country," said Dong Faxin, director of the administration's development and planning department.

In 2017, China's airports handled 552 million trips, and the number is expected to increase to 720 million by 2020, the administration said.