New Kunming airport to handle 63 million

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Kunming International Airport was held on February 11 in Dabanqiao Town in Kunming City, Yunnan. The new airport will have four runways and can handle 63 million passengers annually when the whole project is finished at an undisclosed time. Among those who attended the ceremony were Vice Minister Yang Guoqing of the Civil Aviation Administration of China; Bai Enpei, Yunnan provincial party secretary; and Qin Guangrong, governor of Yunnan province. The new airport is the only large hub airport to be constructed during the 11th Five-Year Plan, which ends in 2010. The project is part of the plan to develop civil aviation in China, particularly in the west. Yang said the new Kunming airport is an important infrastructure project of the CAAC.