Xinqiao Airport in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, handled 8.59 million passenger trips in 2020, down 30 percent year on year, while its cargo throughput edged up 0.5 percent to 87,500 tonnes.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 3.26 million passengers visited the airport in the first half of last year, down over 50 percent from the same period a year earlier. Business picked up in the second half of the year as the pandemic waned. The airport handled 289,000 passenger trips and 2,221 flights during the National Day holiday (from October 1 to 8) alone. The total passenger trips grew more than 60 percent from the Jan-Jun period. The number of air passengers declined 30 percent year on year, 6.6 percentage points higher than the national average. The airport highlighted the transportation of epidemic prevention materials last year as cargo flights continued to be operated by both foreign and domestic airlines such as American Connie Airlines and Royal Russian Airlines on an irregular basis. Notably, it handled 115 cargo flights converted from passenger flights, part of Hefei’s contribution to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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