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Violent attacks have erupted at airports across China, with passengers venting their rage on hapless staff over a summer of grinding delays.

China has spent billions on building some of the largest and most modern airports in the world, but, much to everyone’s embarrassment, it seems unable to get planes to fly between them on time.

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Last month, only 18 per cent of the 22,000 flights out of Beijing’s Capital airport departed on schedule, according to the aviation research company FlightStats, making it the world’s worst major airport for punctuality. Not one Chinese airport managed to get even half of its flights to leave on time.

The delays have seen mobs of angry passengers mount at least eight large protests at departure gates in the past two months, during two of which staff were attacked. There is even a new Chinese phrase for the rampaging hordes: the “kong nu zu”, or “air rage tribe”.

The other passengers were applauding as the man was hitting her

On Thursday July 18, more than 30 passengers broke through security and stormed the runway at Nanchang airport after being delayed for seven hours by bad weather.