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Beijing Capital Airport to cancel 20% of flights in April
March 31st 2017
Asia-Pacific corporates tired of long waits at Mainland airports are better off avoiding travel to Beijing in April. Read More »
Beijing Capital Airport has announced the closure of its main runway for resurfacing works from April 1 through to April 29, reducing the number of departures by up to 312 flights a day, or approximately 20% of its capacity.
The last major maintenance of the affected runway was in 1996. Several sources have suggested cracks have started to form – a major safety hazard as gravel could get sucked into aircraft engines.
Flights of 19 airlines, including Air China, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, will be affected, state-run China Central Television reported.
Wang Yanling, the manager of a control centre at the airport, told the SCMP that international flights would not be affected, but some domestic flights would be less frequent. “Airlines will cope by using bigger aircraft and having fuller flights,” Wang said.
Beijing’s other two runways will remain fully operational during the period.
Capital Airport expects to open a much-needed fourth runway at the end of the year, increasing capacity from 89 departures and hour now to 115.
Beijing’s new airport, Daxing International, will begin operations in 2019. Set to be the world's largest airport with seven runways when fully operational, the US$13.1 billion airfield will co-exist with Capital Airport.
