Love it, or hate it, this retiree blazed a trail with budget flights

Even though I have only been to Beijing Nanyuan Airport three times, I used to hate it as much as many other passengers taking flights there.

There was the lack of subway access, the difficulty in hailing a taxi, the overcrowded terminal building and flight delays.

There were few clues that this was an airport in a major metropolis such as Beijing, with many people sitting on concrete steps or small cement pillars in front of the terminal.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and the exclusive use of the airport by China United Airlines offered passengers an integrated service, from arriving at the building to takeoff.

The average time taken from entering the terminal, to checking in, passing through security channels and boarding a plane is less than 20 minutes, while passengers at other airports need at least 40 minutes to complete such procedures.

However, unlike me, many passengers have been grateful to choose Nanyuan, as it offers budget flights between Beijing and their hometowns, which may still have no direct train services to the capital.

Many people said it was the first time they had taken such flights. China United Airlines has nearly 50 routes to remote cities, which other airlines at Beijing Capital International Airport are not willing to operate.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, in 1949, there were 36 airports in the country. By the end of June, the number had soared to 236, with some seven new facilities opening in the past decade.

However, Li Xunlei, chief economist for Zhongtai Securities, said in a report in January that about 1 billion Chinese have never taken a flight.

That was when I began to adopt a warmer approach to Nanyuan Airport, as such facilities helped to make it affordable for people to fly.

In recent years, Nanyuan has undergone two large-scale expansions in an attempt to handle more passengers, but the 109-year-old airport still finds it difficult to keep pace with the booming civil aviation industry, especially Beijing's ambition to turn itself into a major international transit hub in northern China.

It will soon be saying goodbye to passengers, with Beijing Daxing International Airport due to open before Sept 30.

The new airport, together with many more to come in the near future, will pick up the baton to make air travel an option for everyone.