(Yicai) April 1 — China’s small and medium-sized airports, which deal with a throughput of up to three million people a year, handled a greater number of passengers last year than in 2019 thanks to a booming economy in the smaller third- and fourth-tier cities and a big uptick in travellers to these lesser known destinations.
Thirty-six small and medium-sized airports posted a more than 10 percent increase in passenger throughout last year from 2019, according to data recently released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. And 24 of these logged an over 20 percent jump.
Nationwide, 1.2 billion passengers passed through China’s airports last year, almost a two-and-a-half-fold surge from the previous year, and recovering to 93.2 percent of 2019 levels, the administration said.
Those airports experiencing rapid growth in passenger traffic include small and medium-sized airports in popular tourist destinations, such as southwestern Sichuan province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous…
