China aviation chief lashes airport greed
BEIJING – Too far away, too expensive and too keen to make money – China’s top civil aviation regulator has taken aim at the country’s airports ahead of the Olympics.
Li Jiaxiang, quoted by news agency Xinhua, said, “You can buy a cheap ticket for just a few hundred yuan these days, but it may cost you 200 or 300 yuan just to get to the airport and back.
“When localities are building airports, from now on they must plan properly to prevent waste.â€
Xinhua reported Li as claiming, “It takes at least an hour to drive to new airports in commercial hub Shanghai and tourist hotspot Xian, and numerous others on the drawing board are also far from downtown.â€
Li said the country is spending billions of dollars upgrading old airports and building new ones, but service standards have fallen behind and the government is trying to address the issue ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics.
Passengers have complained too about price gouging, with food and drink costing double or triple what it should.
And Li complained that at some airports, “easy boarding” services, where passengers pay for access to speedier security checks and get priority boarding, could lead to security breaches.
“Passengers hand over a bit of money and they are lead on. Airport workers turn a blind eye when rewarded, and may feel embarrassed about doing proper security checks,” he said.
Ian Jarrett
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