LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12, 2018 -  In 2017, 178,800 flights took off and landed at Qingdao Liuting International Airport, up 6.5% year-on-year, of which 1,517 were intercontinental in nature, a jump of 139.7%. During the year, 23.21 million passengers passed through its terminals, an annual increase of 13.2%, of which 230,000 boarded or disembarked from interncontinental flights, an astounding 265% increase. The average seat utilization rate reached 60.4%. Cargo shipped through the airport totaled 9,696.1 tons, up 92.3% year-on-year. 

The airport accelerated its pace of developing intercontinental flight networks. The airport witnessed the opening of four new intercontinental routes, bringing the overall total up to eight. Direct service is now available between Qingdao and Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Moscow, San Francisco, Sydney and Vancouver. 

Qingdao has also established several transfer networks in the past year. Several new foreign airlines now provide service from the airport, including Cambodian Bassaka Air and Vietnam Airlines as well as several recently added transit options, among them, transfer to and from an intercontinental flight to many cities across China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. The mix of aircraft calling at the airport has been optimized in line with the travel patterns of the passengers, with the number of large-body aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and the Airbus 330 having increased by a factor of 5.7. Seven new overnight flights have been added.

Read the full story here: http://www.chinesetoday.com/en/article/1218161

By Zhou Jianliang, Editor: Chris Chu

Contact: idnchina@gmail.com