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Airport buzzes as visitors depart
Beijing's international airport is crowded yesterday with tourists, athletes and delegates returning home after the close of the Olympics.
Photo: Dickson Lee
Beijing's international airport was bustling on Monday, one day after the Olympics closing ceremony.
More than 12,000 foreign athletes and Games officials left the host city on 260 international flights, including 24 chartered ones, airport officials said.
The number of international travellers leaving Beijing after the 17-day Olympics reached 32,600 yesterday, twice the daily average.
Most of them chose morning flights, leaving the newly expanded terminals unusually crowded, student volunteers said.
While the 400-strong Swiss delegation was the largest, there were seven others - including those from the United States, Britain and Russia - with more than 200 members each.
Although some travellers complained about long queues at check-in and security, airport authorities said they had tried their best to offer good service, and ensure the smooth and safe departure of Games passengers.
A press officer surnamed Li said airport staff were not surprised by the increase in departing passengers.
However, Xinhua reported that a bigger challenge for the airport had yet to come, with 380 Olympics-related flights leaving Beijing today, and more than 100 flights tomorrow.
From August 1 until the opening ceremony on August 8, the airport expected to handle about 260,000 passengers a day, which mainland civil aviation officials described as near capacity and posing unprecedented challenges.
Meanwhile, traffic authorities said 286km of Olympic traffic lanes designated for athletes, officials, dignitaries and the media in the past month would reopen to the public from Thursday.
A traffic reduction scheme based on odd-even car registration plates, which took almost half the city's 3.3 million cars off the roads to clear smoggy air, will also be lifted outside the Fifth Ring Road.