300 flights axed as Beijing shuts airport runway for repairs
Maintenance to central runway expected to take most of April
Passengers will have to contend with fewer flight choices, longer taxiing times and more delays at Beijing Capital International Airport when one of its runways undergoes four weeks of repairs next month.
The repairs to one of the three runways at the airport, the second busiest in the world, will be carried out from April 2 to April 29, according to a statement from the facility.
The work on the middle runway, which carries about 40 per cent of the airport’s traffic, will cut about 300 flights a day, reducing the total number of flights to about 1,400.
Flights of 19 airlines, including Air China, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, will be affected, state-run China Central Television reported.
The number of passengers through the facility was expected to drop by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent.
Wang Yanling, the manager of a control centre at the airport, was quoted as saying international flights would not be affected but some domestic flights would be less frequent.