A Chinese city undergoing rapid economic growth, Chengdu is now the darling of foreign and local investors alike. To improve this city's openness to the world, the construction of a second airport was announced on June 1, 2015 by the Chinese government. What can you find out about Chengdu's new airport?
Construction history of Chengdu airport
Construction of Chengdu's gigantic Tianfu airport began in 2016. The site chosen for its design is Lujia a city located 51 kilometers southeast of the center of Chengdu. In fact, it was designed and built by a business organization including :
- China Airport Construction Group Corporation,
- China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute,
- the French architectural firm ADP Ingénierie.
It covers an area of 600,000 m2 and can accommodate up to 60 million passengers a year. It's a jewel whose construction required a budget of 11 billion dollars (70 billion yuan). For the time being, the airport only serves external flights to Tokyo-Narita. It was inaugurated on June 27, 2021 with Airbus A350-900 flights to Beijing operated by Sichuan Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
What are the features of Tianfu airport?
This airport was designed to be China's third major airport, based in Chengdu. Seen from the air, its architecture reveals a circle with two phoenix-shaped roofs at the ends. It was built using state-of-the-art technology. It features automatic check-in kiosks and facial recognition software. You'll find artificial intelligence robots and automatic boarding gates. Everything has been done to facilitate the check-in process and eliminate long queues.
Various high-security policies guarantee passenger comfort and baggage safety. Indeed, the main aim of the new airport is to decentralize baggage handling. While Terminal 1 is designed to receive international flights, Terminal 2 is exclusively dedicated to local flights.
You'll recognize them by their processors and futilely oblique pylons. Although each terminal has its own specific features, they are all reinforced by a connecting corridor oriented towards the runways. This airport advocates short walking distances between terminal gates and departure lounges.
To facilitate the airport's connection with the city center, a metro line has been built. Residents of Chengdu can now reach the airport and vice-versa in less than 45 minutes by metro at a speed of 140 km/hour. Construction of a second line linking Chengdu's two airports (local and international) is currently underway and is scheduled for completion in 2023.
Tianfu airport is one of the major airports in the Sino-French alliance that has relieved congestion at Chengdu-Shuangliu international airport. It is a hub for Chinese air transport that will boost economic growth and tourism by promoting the free movement of people and goods. In the long term, it will be a vector for collaboration with the Middle East and China. This infrastructure will further consolidate China's program of opening up to the world.
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