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Now that China's high-speed rail has a stop close to the largest airport in Hebei province, the airport has become an even better alternate flight destination for travelers heading to or from nearby Beijing.
On Wednesday, the new high-speed rail terminal opened near Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport.
About 13,000 passengers, 70 percent of whom were individual travelers, used the airrail integration in the past two months after the train began stopping in the airport's rail station on Dec 26.
"The number of passengers using the airport by the end of 2015 will reach 10 million with the help of rail lines, double the number in 2012," said Zhang Yanjie, chairman of Hebei Airport Management Holdings.
One of the biggest incentives for passengers to use high-speed rail to get to the airport is that they can get a refund for their train tickets through March 31 when they take flights to and from there.
The airport has not decided whether it will extend the offer, said Li Ning, deputy general manager of the airport's management authority.
The offer targets passengers who take the high-speed trains from seven neighboring major cities - Beijing; Zhuozhou and Gaobeidian of Hebei province; Taiyuan and Yangquan of Shanxi province; and Zhengzhou and Anyang of Henan province.
A second-class, high-speed train ticket from Beijing to the airport costs 111 yuan ($18), and tickets from other cities are as little as 40 yuan.
The preferential policy attracted more passengers, as the airport management company had expected.
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