CHINA will continue to build airports even though 130 of the country's 182 airports lost about 3 billion yuan (US$487 million) last year, the head of the country's civil aviation regulator said yesterday.

Each airport is losing about 20 million yuan annually on average in China, said Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, yesterday. But the government still plans to build 82 new airports by 2015 to meet rising air travel demand despite 70 percent of the airports losing money last year.

"We should not merely see airport profits but take into account that an airport can largely boost the economy of the whole region," Li said.

For instance, the newly-built Mohe Airport in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province generated more than 300 million yuan to the local economy from tourism and logistics, while the operational cost of the airport was below 20 million yuan annually, he revealed.

An airport can produce output eight times its cost for the local economy, Vice Minister of Finance Li Yong estimated, adding the government will invest 64.1 billion yuan in the current Five-Year Plan period between 2011 and 2015 for airport and facility construction, double the amount in the previous five years.