Cuba Olympians arrive in Beijing on first charter flight
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Posted on: July 29th, 2008 by Dave Smith
On Sunday, an Il-96 charter jet landed at the Beijing International Airport carrying the 168-strong Cuban delegation to the Olympics, which are set to begin on 8 August.
This was the first charter flight carrying members of an Olympic delegation to land at the Chinese capital’s airport.
A newly-opened 100,000 square metre terminal at the Beijing airport, called T3D, was built to handle all Olympic charter flights. The Cuban team were quickly processed through all the formalities via 16 separate channels, according to the managing director of the airport, Dong Zhiyi.
The Cuban team’s press officer, Perez Fernandez Mario, described the journey to Beijing as “exciting” and that the delegation was “full of expectations” about the upcoming Games.
Miguel Quintana, a member of the team who won a gold medal at the Athens Games in men’s 60kg freestyle wrestling, said that he’d like to repeat the win in Beijing.
The Cuban athletes will compete in 16 sports at the Games in Beijing, including boxing, shooting, swimming and volleyball.
The Beijing International Airport is expecting several hundred charter flights to land and take off during the upcoming Games, added Dong.
en.bcia.com.cn