Chengdu Tianfu International Airport Photo: Xinhua

Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, became the third city in the Chinese mainland to have two major international airports after Beijing and Shanghai. The new Chengdu Tianfu International Airport started operations on Sunday and will complement the city's Shuangliu International Airport. 

The construction of the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport took five years to complete. It has a capacity to manage up to 60 million passenger trips annually and a cargo volume of 1.3 million tons. It is also the biggest civil airport scheduled in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). 

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport operated 72 domestic routes and 14 international routes. The new Tianfu International Airport is expected to be the city's main international hub leaving the Shuangliu airport with a more secondary role to support domestic operations. The airport has two terminal buildings, with a total area of 710,000 square meters, and a comprehensive transportation transfer center.

The airport will be a new international hub for Air China, which officially launched its first flight on Sunday. Air China has successively deployed 17 aircrafts at the new airport, gradually increasing its route network to 30 destinations and increasing the number of daily flights to 60. 

Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern

China Eastern had maiden flights from Chengdu Tianfu to Shanghai Hongqiao and Beijing Daxing on Sunday, which formally opened its operation at the regional airport. 

China Eastern said it will transfer the flights from Chengdu Shuangliu to Tianfu in sections on Tuesday evening, and will start full operation from Tianfu airport on Wednesday, and all international routes were shifted to Tianfu airport as well. 

It will gradually increase the number of flights at Tianfu airport in stages. By the winter and spring of this year, on the basis of the routes from Chengdu Tianfu to Shanghai, Beijing, Kunming, and Shenzhen, it will plan to increase flights to Hangzhou, Qingdao, and Ningbo, Taiyuan and Hefei. China Eastern Airlines and its subsidiaries are expected to fly 137 flights at Tianfu airport every day by the summer and autumn season of 2022.

Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern

Air China will increase its investment in stages according to market demand and estimates that, by the end of summer 2023, the airline will cover 95 destinations from Chengdu.

From June 30, Air China's destinations from Chengdu Tianfu Airport will include Guangzhou and Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province, Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province and Haikou in South China's Hainan Province.