Beijing domestic passenger and cargo flights 'to be shared with neighbouring airports'
The authorities hope the move will boost economies in Tianjin and Shijiazhuang in northern China, according to a newspaper report
Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang in the northern province of Hebei in China have signed an air traffic agreement to carve up the types of flight travelling to the cities’ airports, The Beijing News reported.
The cities’ governments agreed that Beijing Capital International Airport should get most of the large, international flights in the region while small, domestic flights should go to either Tianjin or Shijiazhuang.
The changes will take several years to come into force as rail and other infrastructure linking the cities is built, the report said.
Beijing’s international airport is struggling to cope with its current volume of air traffic, while Tianjin and Shijiazhuang want more passengers, the report said.
The new agreement did not give exact details of which flights would be routed away from Beijing.
It takes about an hour to travel from Tianjin’s airport to Beijing by rail and there is no high-speed rail link from the capital to airports in Hebei.