China is looking to build up to 216 new airports before the year 2035, bringing the total within the country to 450 before 2040.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) made the forecast according to its news affiliate, CAAC News, as global aviation industry experts and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) expect China will surpass the United States as the largest aviation market in the 2020s.

Among the planned areas to see new airport development include the Yangtze River Delta, Tianjin-Hebei, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chongqing and Chengdu regions.

In a report by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, Dong Faxin, director of the administration's development and planning department stated: "Service has improved substantially, but existing airports are far from adequate and are unevenly distributed throughout the country.”

According to the agency, China has about 234 civil airports that saw an estimated total of 589 million passengers in 2017.

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