|
On October 8th, Harbin Taiping International Airport reached a passenger processing number of 5 million. Early this month, the airport set a new record of processing 1 million passengers within 53 days.
Ms. Zhang, a Daqing resident, was on her way from Harbin to Shenzhen last Monday and she was told that she was the 6-millionth passenger at the Harbin Taiping International Airport in 2009. It was a big surprise to her. But to the airport operation staff, it is their goal.
(Sound bite - Sun Chunjing, General Manager, Heilongjiang Airport Group): "Two reasons resulted in the increase of passengers. One is the rapid economic development of Heilongjiang. The other is the tourism boom of the province. We saw more visitors this year."
Statistics from the Harbin Taiping International Airport showed that in the slack seasons from March to June and September to November, passengers number has increased by 30%, and a 40% increase in November. This year's Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair period saw some 120,000 air passengers.
The brisk air market performance has attracted many airlines to open new routes to Harbin. Some 26 new air routes were opened by 9 domestic airlines this year with 120 additional fights a week. Air China, Southern Airlines and China Eastern have allocated more aircrafts such as Boeing 757 to travel the Harbin air routes. So far 22 aviation companies have opened service counters at the Harbin Taiping International Airport.
Meanwhile, direct international flights to Russia, Japan, South Korea and neighboring countries are available at the Harbin Airport.
|
