THANKS to the launch of more international routes, the turnover of international travelers at the Shenzhen airport increased by 43.8 percent to 793,000 in the first six months of this year.

    Since the new terminal was put into operation at the end of 2013, the Shenzhen airport had opened eight new international routes and increased the number of flights on some of the internationals routes.

    In the past two weeks, China Southern Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines opened new routes to Osaka and Ibaraki in Japan, bringing the total number of destinations to foreign countries to 14.

    The airport is now operating flights to eight countries — Mauritius in Africa, Tokyo, Osaka and Ibaraki in Japan, Seoul and Jeju Island in South Korea, Kuala Lumpur and Sabah in Malaysia, Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi in Thailand, Singapore, Bali Island in Indonesia and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

    During the Spring Festival in February, it also opened chartered flights to Aswan and Cairo in Egypt.

    The Shenzhen airport will try to open intercontinental routes to Europe and North America, while consolidating its routes in Asia this year.

    The airport has opened 30 waiting halls in eight cities and opened 20 bus routes linking Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Heyuan, Hong Kong and Macao with the Shenzhen airport. The interval of the bus services between the Shenzhen airport and Hong Kong was shortened to just 15 minutes.

    After the opening of the new terminal, the Shenzhen airport extended customs services to 19 hours a day to encourage airline companies to open international routes.

    In another development, the Shenzhen airport reminded tra-velers to arrive at the airport two hours before departure to ensure enough time to complete check-in, security check and boarding as the daily turnover of passengers has reached 110,000.

    The number of air travelers has risen since the start of the summer transport season. In July, the Shenzhen airport handled 3.35 million passengers, an increase of 8.3 percent compared to that of last year.

    Tickets to Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Haikou, Sanya and Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul are in a big demand. (Han Ximin, Yin Ran)