China's newest mega aviation hub out in the West

𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘢’𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘦𝘨𝘢 𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘶𝘣 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬

𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗱𝘂 𝗧𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗳𝘂 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 (成都天府国际机场) opened on June 27 as second international airport of the city (Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is the first airport).

The new airport has the ambition to become the 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱-𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝘂𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗷𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗶. The current phase one was built in 5 years including 3 runways and 2 terminals with a capacity of 60 million passengers per year. ‘Cutting-edge’ technologies including AI (such as robot airport staff), facial recognition, driverless interterminal transport and automated check-ins have been or will be implemented and a new metro line links the airport to central Chengdu in about 40 minutes (50km).

Phase 2 expansion of the airport, scheduled for construction during coming decade will add 3 more runways, 2 additional terminals, increasing the capacity to 90-100 million passengers per year.

While the ‘old’ Chengdu Shuangliu airport already handled 55 million passengers in 2019 (top 24 in the world) and was top 3 most busiest airport in the world during last year’s COVID 2020 with 40 million passengers, 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗱𝘂 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝘂𝗯 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘇𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀. A solid starting base along the southern route of the Belt and Road Initiative towards the west, the modern silk road.

Tianfu Airport is one of 159 new airports being built by the Chinese government in coming years. 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗮𝗶𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝟰𝟬𝟬 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟯𝟱, a large increase from the current 241, according to the Transportation Network Planning Outline issued in early 2021.

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