Jiujiang airport in Jiangxi province handled 43,000 passengers in 2008, five times the 2007 number and the highest total it has ever recorded, according to the airport website.

This represents a healthy turnaround for an airport that has experienced serious difficulties in recent years. It has been closed for about half of the time since opening in 1996 due to low traffic levels. Its latest reopening was in 2006.

With a capacity to handle 500,000 passengers a year, Jiujiang airport is only 10km from the south gate of the popular tourist attraction of Lushan Mountain. However, more tourists bound for the mountain preferred to use alternative airports such as Nanchang, which despite being further away had good expressway links to the mountain area.

In response, Jiujiang airport began offering passengers special discounts on Lushan’s entrance fees. It also subsidised flights landing at the airport to attract more services, Jiujiang Daily reported.

These measures appear to be working and the airport has already started flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen.

However there is no room for complacency, according to Xu Faxin, who was in charge of the airport’s reopening in 2006. He said it needs to focus more on cargo transport and adopt new strategies to lure tourists headed for Lushan.