Inner Mongolia opens three commuter airports

Three commuter airports in northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region started operations on Tuesday.

The three airports in Alxa League, also called Alashan League, operated by the Inner Mongolia Civil Airport Group are Bayinhot in Alxa Left Banner, Badaijiran in Alxa Right Banner and Taorai in Ejin Banner.

On Tuesday, a passenger aircraft flew from Alxa Left Banner to Ejin Banner and then to Alxa Right Banner before returning to Bayinhot airport, according to Li Wei, general manager of the Alxa League commuter airport company.

Another Xinzhou-60 passenger aircraft took off at 11:17am Tuesday from Bayinhot for Hohhot, the regional capital, said Li. Currently, the two domestic airlines — Okair and Joyair — use aircraft with around 50 seats.

Construction of the three airports in the commuter aviation project began in August 2012 with a total investment of 390 million yuan (US$64 million).

In addition to flights to the other two airports, Bayinhot will start flights to Hohhot and Tianjin.

According to the plan, the passenger throughput at Bayinhot will reach 250,000, while that at Badaijiran will reach 45,000 and that at Taorai airport will reach 80,000 by 2020.

Located in western Inner Mongolia, Alxa League has an area of 272,000 square kilometers and a population of 230,000. Scarcity of transport in the remote region has affected local economic development.

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