China's oldest airport ceases public operations

　　中国最古老的机场停止民航运营

　　At around 11 pm on Wednesday, as the last flight took off from Beijing Nanyuan Airport, the 109-year-old airport officially retired from serving civil aircraft.

　　周三晚上11点左右，当最后一架飞机从北京南苑机场起飞后，这座拥有109年历史的机场正式停止了民航运营。

　　All its civil aviation operations will move to Beijing Daxing International Airport, which opened to traffic on the same day.

　　南苑机场所有民航运营将转移至于同一日启动运营的北京大兴国际机场。

　　As the country's first airport, it was built in 1910 and mainly used for military, serving as a training center for air and ground troops.

　　作为中国最早的机场，南苑机场始建于1910年，当时主要用于军事用途，作为空军和地面部队的训练中心使用。

　　At the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Nanyuan airport supported a nearby aviation school that had sprung up in 1913, training more than 100 pilots who later became the backbone of China's civil aviation industry. It started serving as both a civilian and military airfield since 1984.

　　清朝（1644-1911）末年，位于南苑机场附近的一所建立于1913年的航校使用这座机场训练出了百余名飞行员，这些人后来成为了中国民航业的中坚力量。自1984年起，南苑机场便成为了军民两用机场。

　　With its small terminal expanded in 2012, Nanyuan airport became a supplement to Beijing Capital International Airport, to help ease air traffic pressure on its counterpart to the north. In 2018, Nanyuan airport processed 6.51 million passengers in total.

　　2012年，随着其规模较小的航站楼进行了扩建，南苑机场成为了北京首都国际机场的补充，缓解了北部的空中交通压力。2018年，南苑机场旅客吞吐量达651万人次。

　　To deliver a seamless connection between the two airports, China United Airlines, which was using Nanyuan airport as its main hub, carried out several operating simulations before.

　　为了实现两个机场间的无缝对接，曾以南苑机场作为主运营基地的中国联合航空公司进行了多次模拟运营。

　　On Wednesday, a total of 75 flights took off and landed at the airport — 38 inbound and 37 outbound, accommodating around 11,500 passengers.

　　周三，南苑机场共有75架航班起飞降落（其中38架入境，37架出境），累计服务旅客约11500名。

　　On Tuesday, one day before its closing, people went to the airport to snap pictures or to even take a short flight and keep the plane ticket as a souvenir. The airport will likely be converted into an aviation museum.

　　周二，在停止运营前一天，人们来到这座机场拍照，更有甚者乘坐短程航班以保存机票作为纪念。南苑机场未来很可能会变成一座航空博物馆。

　　(全文共254个词)

　　重难点词汇：

　　backbone  n. 脊骨，脊柱；支柱；骨气，毅力；书脊

　　terminal  n. 航空站；终点站；末端；晚期病人 adj. 晚期的；末端的；终点的

　　counterpart  n. 副本；配对物；极相似的人或物

　　seamless  adj. 无缝的；无缝合线的；无伤痕的