| | Policies set to develop civil aviation industry |
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CreateTime:2008-05-01 Editor:liaoyan
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CHINA'S State Council has approved policies which will subsidize smaller airports and regional routes to aid the development of the civil aviation industry.
The policies will mainly support airports which handle fewer than five million passengers annually and regional routes shorter than 600 kilometers, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said yesterday.
The subsidy will go up or down by about 20 percent between the off season and peak season.
The policies also include interest deductions on loans used for airport infrastructure construction and standards to measure airport's investment in safety.
The interest deduction policy is meant to encourage investors to seek loans from banks. The government will pay for all or part of the loan interest from the start of the project till three years after the loan is put into use.
Nine standards
The watchdog will also evaluate airports using nine standards to ensure adequate investment in safety.
Many domestic airports are overloaded and can't meet the fast-growing demand for air travel, industry experts said.
They face high liability, rising fuel prices and fierce competition in the global market, the experts pointed out.
There were 151 civil airports in the country by the end of last year, the second largest in the world. However, the western areas of the country lag behind the eastern regions.
The country will invest 450 billion yuan (US$64.3 billion) in expanding its civil airport network by 2020.
This expansion will enable 82 percent of the country's population to live within 100 kilometers of an airport, experts said.
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