SHANGHAI: Already Asia’s biggest aircraft buyer, China is developing its own passenger planes and building scores of airports but its aviation expansion faces turbulence from slowing growth and inadequate infrastructure.
Three of the mainland’s airports are among the world’s 20 busiest, with Beijing in global second place on 78 million passengers a year, behind only Atlanta in the United States. China Eastern agreed to buy 80 of Boeing’s 737 jets, valued at more than $8bn, earlier this month after Europe’s Airbus won a similar-sized order from China Southern. Regional outfit Shandong Airlines and yet-to-be-launched budget operator 9 Air took 50 Boeing 737s each. AFP
