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India Travel

China and India Love the Idea of Airports

February 11, 2008 at 9:15 AM | 0 Comments

Where we live, the opening of a new airport is a big event, and it's often one that comes with its own controversies too. But if you're living in China or India then you can pretty much expect a new airport to pop up 'round the corner from you any day now.

This week both countries have unveiled their plans for the next decade or so, publicizing how many new airports they hope to create by the year 2020. China has the relatively modest goal of opening 97 new airports, at a cost of $62.5 billion. By the time they've built those, they reckon that 82 percent of Chinese citizens will live within a 90 minute drive of an airport, which is pretty handy.

In India, they're even more ambitious. The country's aiming to have 500 airports open to regular public flights by 2020. Right now, only 80 airports in India operate commercial flights and only 16 of these offer international flights. But there's a lot of half-hearted landing strips and small private airports that could be renovated and put into commercial service, and that's where the goal of 500 comes from. Looks like the world is gonna need a whole lot more of those three-letter codes soon.

Related Stories:
· China to Build 97 New Airports By 2020 [AFP]
· India Plans to Have 500 Airports by 2020 [Hindustan Times]
· Airports coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: xiaming]