Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

THE aviation administration has approved seven international routes, from Shenzhen to Kalibo in the Philippines, Sapporo in Japan, Moscow, New York, Melbourne, Brisbane and Madrid since January this year.

If the route between Shenzhen and London, which was approved at the end of last year, and the international routes to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and Phnom Penh in Cambodia are included, Shenzhen will be opening at least 10 international routes this year, the Shenzhen airport said in a release yesterday.

The airport is working with airlines to open the intercontinental routes to Mexico, Brisbane and New York.

Shenzhen-BIT and Moscow University will open this September and the airport is trying to open the route to Moscow before September, in order to promote cultural, educational, technological and business exchanges between the two cities.

Statistics showed that the Shenzhen airport handled 11.07 million passengers and 257,000 tons of cargo in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 8.2 percent and 8.1 percent respectively. This year is also China-Australia Tourism Year, so the Shenzhen airport will try to open routes to Melbourne and Brisbane.

The airport handled 853,000 international passengers in the first quarter, an increase of 29 percent year on year, and much higher than the 6.6 percent increase in domestic passenger turnover.