在中国175座外表光鲜的机场中，有四分之三处于亏损状态，许多几乎很少使用，还有一些根本就没有任何航班起降。
Around three quarters of China’s 175 gleaming airports are losing money, many are barely used and some don’t have any flights at all.
中国政府是如何解决这个问题的？回答是加速机场建设热潮：计划在未来5年内新建45座民用机场，使全国机场总数在2015年前达到220个以上。
Beijing’s solution to this problem? Accelerate the building spree with a plan to add 45 new commercial airports over the next five years, bringing the total across the country to more than 220 by 2015.
中国民航总局上周宣布，“十二五”期间，全行业的投资规模将超过1.5万亿元人民币（合2300亿美元），主要用于建设新机场和增加飞机数量。
The country’s civil aviation regulator announced last week that the government plans to invest more than Rmb1,500bn ($230bn) in the aviation sector in the next five years, with the bulk of the money to be spent on new airports and new aircraft.
而在“十一五”期间，全行业投资规模约为1万亿元人民币。
That compares with the roughly Rmb1,000bn spent in the sector over the last five years.
“十二五”期间，全国机队规模将从去年年底的2600架，增至4500架以上。这些机队几乎完全由国有航空公司运营管理。
The total national aircraft fleet, operated almost entirely by state-owned carriers, will be expanded to more than 4,500 over that time from 2,600 aircraft at the end of last year.
在建机场中的许多，与浙江省嘉兴市的机场颇为相似。这座机场距离中国三座大型机场——上海的两座、杭州的一座——只有一小时左右的车程。
Many of the airport projects in the works are similar to the one in the town of Jiaxing in eastern Zhejiang province, which sits roughly an hour’s drive from three of the country’s biggest international airports – two in Shanghai and one in the city of Hangzhou.
尽管嘉兴与上海和杭州之间已建成崭新的高速铁路，还有许多高速公路相连，嘉兴市政府还是投资约3亿元人民币，建设一座民用机场。
Despite a brand new high-speed rail line and numerous expressways that connect Jiaxing to Shanghai and Hangzhou the Jiaxing government is investing around Rmb300m on a commercial airport.
私下里，民航业以外的政府官员表示，全国范围内的机场泛滥已经成了一个大问题，但面对地方官员以长期经济发展为由、改善航空基础设施建设的说法，中央政府很难说不。
In private, Chinese officials outside the aviation sector say the proliferation of airports across the country is a serious concern but that the central government has trouble saying no to local officials who make the long-term economic case for improved aviation infrastructure.
当然，其中潜藏的巨大的贪污受贿、收取回扣的机会，也是促使地方官员最初提议建设机场的重要动机。
Of course, the enormous opportunities for graft and skimming off the top are great incentives for the local officials to propose the projects in first place.
短期内，由于来自高铁的竞争不断加剧，加之前往偏远地区的客源不足，大多数机场将持续亏损。
In the short-term most airport projects will continue to lose money in the face of growing competition from high-speed rail and lack of passenger demand for out-of-the-way destinations.
如果你意识到，政府表示将在民航行业投资1.5万亿元，其实际含义是命令国有银行为获批的机场项目和新增飞机提供大部分资金时，这就成为了一个影响范围更广的经济问题。
This becomes a wider economic problem when you realize that when the government says it will invest Rmb1,500bn in the aviation sector it actually means it will order state-controlled banks to lend most of that money to approved airport projects and national carriers.
以嘉兴机场为例，当地官员表示，他们预计将在2025年前收回全部投资，但许多分析师表示，这种投资最终只会变成中国国有银行资产负债表上的坏账
In the case of Jiaxing airport, local officials say they expect to recoup all their money by 2025 but many analysts say this kind of investment will just end up as a bad loan on the books of a Chinese bank.