Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Encyclopedia
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the main airport of Guangzhou
, the capital of the province of Guangdong
, People's Republic of China
. Both airport codes were inherited from the previous Guangzhou airport, and the IATA code reflects Guangzhou's former romanization Canton. The airport is the main hub of China Southern Airlines
and a focus city for Shenzhen Airlines
.
In 2010, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was China's 2nd busiest and world's 19th busiest airport
in terms of passenger traffic, with 40,975,673 people handled. As for cargo traffic, the airport was the 3rd busiest in China and the 21st busiest worldwide
. Guangzhou airport is also the 3rd busiest airport in terms of traffic movements in China.
opened on August 5, 2004, replacing the 72-year-old previous, identically named Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (now closed). The new airport, built at a cost of 19.8 billion yuan
, is 28 kilometres (17.4 mi) north of downtown Guangzhou and nearly 5 times larger than its predecessor. "Baiyun" (白云) means "white cloud" in Chinese
, and refers to Baiyun Mountain
(Baiyunshan) near the location of the former airport. The airport is also referred to as "New Baiyun" to distinguish it from the previous version, but this is not a part of the official name.
The opening of the New Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had relieved most of the controversies of the older and deteriorated airport because of the limited space, overcrowding and lack of expansions. Its opening allowed it to overcome curfews and restrictions and begin a 24 hour operation. This meant that China Southern Airlines could highly utilize their intercontinental routes by flying overnight. Other airlines have this benefit too.
The airport is served by the Airport South Station
on Line 3 of the Guangzhou Metro
.
of China.
According to the expansion project, the airport will build a third runway located 400 metres east of the existing east runway. The new runway will be 3800 metres long and 60 metres wide. Other facilities of the expansion plan include a 531,000-square-metre Terminal 2, a new indoor car park and an outdoor car park, a transportation centre and a metro station which will serve Terminal 2. The total cost of the project will be ¥
14.036 billion. Construction of the third runway is estimated to start in 2011 and finish in the first half of 2013. When the whole project is finished by the end of 2015, the airport will be able to handle 75 million passengers and more than 2.17 million tonnes of cargo a year.
It has A and B gates, while there are A1-A18 and A124-A133. For the B gates, there are B01-B04, B201-B218, and B224-B233.
in the Philippines to Baiyun airport. The new Asia-Pacific hub covers an area of approximate 63 hectares (155.7 acre), with a total floor space of 82000 square metres (882,640.7 sq ft). At the beginning of operation, the hub employed more than 800 people and operated 136 flights a week, providing delivery services among 20 major cities in Asia and linking these cities to more than 220 countries and territories in the world
. The Guangzhou hub was, at the time of the opening, the largest FedEx hub outside the United States
, but it was later surpassed by the expanded hub at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The hub has its own ramp control tower, a first one for an international air express cargo company facility in China, which enables FedEx to control aircraft movements on the ground, aircraft parking plans as well as loading and unloading priorities. Also included at the hub are a unique package and sorting system with 16 high-speed sorting lines, seven round-out conveyor belts and a total of 90 primary and secondary document-sorting splits. With the new advanced system, up to 24,000 packages can be sorted an hour at the start of operations.
Construction began in 2006 and the hub was originally scheduled to open on December 26, 2008. But on November 17, 2008, after several months of testing, FedEx announced that the opening date was delayed to the first half of 2009 when the hub was expected to be fully operational. FedEx claimed that the revised operation date "provided FedEx with the necessary time to fully test all systems and processes, as well as work closely with the Guangzhou authorities to ensure all necessary approvals are in place".
On December 17, 2008, the hub completed its first flight operations test. A FedEx MD-11
aircraft took off from Subic Bay International Airport in the Philippines and landed at Baiyun Airport at 5:50 am. The flight was handled by the new FedEx hub team, utilizing the FedEx ramp control tower and the new 24,000 package per hour sort system. Following a successful operations' process, the flight departed on time for its final destination at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. This Asia-Europe flight route operated four times per week during test run. FedEx also announced that the hub would start operation on February 6, 2009.
FedEx closed its 13-year-old Asia-Pacific hub at Subic Bay of northern Philippines on February 6, 2009 with the last flight leaving for Taiwan just before dawn, while hub operations have moved to Baiyun Airport.
The first flight that arrived at the new FedEx Asia-Pacific hub originated from Indianapolis International Airport
. The MD-11 aircraft landed at 11:07 pm at Baiyun International Airport from Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, marking the opening and full operations of the new Asia-Pacific hub.
23°23′33"N 113°17′56"E
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, the capital of the province of Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Both airport codes were inherited from the previous Guangzhou airport, and the IATA code reflects Guangzhou's former romanization Canton. The airport is the main hub of China Southern Airlines
China Southern Airlines
China Southern Airlines is an airline headquartered in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China. It is the world's sixth-largest airline measured by passengers carried, and Asia's largest airline in terms of both fleet size and passengers carried...
and a focus city for Shenzhen Airlines
Shenzhen Airlines
Shenzhen Airlines is a domestic and international airlines headquartered in Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China....
.
In 2010, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was China's 2nd busiest and world's 19th busiest airport
World's busiest airports by passenger traffic
The world's busiest airports by passenger traffic are measured by number of total passengers . One passenger is described as someone who arrives in, departs from, or transfers through the airport on a given day...
in terms of passenger traffic, with 40,975,673 people handled. As for cargo traffic, the airport was the 3rd busiest in China and the 21st busiest worldwide
World's busiest airports by cargo traffic
The world's thirty busiest airports by cargo traffic for various periods . Numbers listed refer to loaded and unloaded freight in metric tonnes.-2010 final statistics:...
. Guangzhou airport is also the 3rd busiest airport in terms of traffic movements in China.
Overview
The current airport in Huadu DistrictHuadu District
Huadu District is a district in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is located in the far northern suburbs of Guangzhou.Xinhua Town is the seat of local government, and of the district CCP committee....
opened on August 5, 2004, replacing the 72-year-old previous, identically named Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (now closed). The new airport, built at a cost of 19.8 billion yuan
Renminbi
The Renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China . Renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. It is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC...
, is 28 kilometres (17.4 mi) north of downtown Guangzhou and nearly 5 times larger than its predecessor. "Baiyun" (白云) means "white cloud" in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and refers to Baiyun Mountain
Baiyun Mountain
Baiyun Mountain is a mountain near Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province in China.-History:The name of the mountain derives from the view of peaks shrouded by white clouds in late Spring or when the sky clears after rain, Baiyun Mountain has been a scenic spot since ancient times...
(Baiyunshan) near the location of the former airport. The airport is also referred to as "New Baiyun" to distinguish it from the previous version, but this is not a part of the official name.
The opening of the New Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had relieved most of the controversies of the older and deteriorated airport because of the limited space, overcrowding and lack of expansions. Its opening allowed it to overcome curfews and restrictions and begin a 24 hour operation. This meant that China Southern Airlines could highly utilize their intercontinental routes by flying overnight. Other airlines have this benefit too.
The airport is served by the Airport South Station
Airport South Station (Guangzhou)
Airport South Station is a metro station of Line 3 on the Guangzhou Metro. The station is located directly below the terminal building of Baiyun Airport and unlike other metro stations in Guangzhou, does not have independent entrances or exits on the ground level, but instead being equipped with...
on Line 3 of the Guangzhou Metro
Guangzhou Metro
Guangzhou Metro is the metro system of the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province of China. It is operated by the state-owned Guangzhou Metro Corporation and was the fourth metro system to be built in mainland China, after those of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.The earliest effort of preparation...
.
Future development
In August 2008, the airport's new expansion plan got approved by the National Development and Reform CommissionNational Development and Reform Commission
The National Development and Reform Commission , formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the Chinese State Council, which has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy...
of China.
According to the expansion project, the airport will build a third runway located 400 metres east of the existing east runway. The new runway will be 3800 metres long and 60 metres wide. Other facilities of the expansion plan include a 531,000-square-metre Terminal 2, a new indoor car park and an outdoor car park, a transportation centre and a metro station which will serve Terminal 2. The total cost of the project will be ¥
Renminbi
The Renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China . Renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. It is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC...
14.036 billion. Construction of the third runway is estimated to start in 2011 and finish in the first half of 2013. When the whole project is finished by the end of 2015, the airport will be able to handle 75 million passengers and more than 2.17 million tonnes of cargo a year.
Data
- Runways: 2—3800 metres (12,467.2 ft) and 3600 metres (11,811 ft)
- Aircraft parking bays: 173 (passenger apron and cargo apron)
- Current passenger capacity: 45 million passengers per year
- Planned passenger capacity in 2020: 75 million passengers per year
- Current cargo capacity: 1 million tonnes
- Planned cargo capacity in 2010: 2 million tonnes
- Planned cargo capacity in 2020: over 2.17 million tonnes
- Destinations: 100 (mostly domestic)
- Branch airports: ShantouShantouShantou , historically known as Swatow or Suátao, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, with a total population of 5,391,028 as of 2010 and an administrative area of...
, MeizhouMeizhou-Administration:The municipal government, Intermediate Court and CPC and PSB bureaux are housed in the district of Jiangnan , on the right bank of Meijiang River.A second district of Meizhou is Jiangbei , on the left bank...
, ZhanjiangZhanjiangZhanjiang , formerly known as Tsamkong, Tsankiang, Fort-Bayard, and Kwang-Chou-Wan, is a prefecture-level city at the southwestern end of Guangdong province of Southern China, facing the island of Hainan to the south....
- Planned branch airports: ShaoguanShaoguanShaoguan , historically known as Shaokwan and Shao-chow, is a prefecture-level city in the north of Southern China's Guangdong province...
, ZhaoqingZhaoqingZhaoqing is a prefecture-level city of Guangdong province in southern China.-Geography:Zhaoqing is located 110 km northwest of Guangzhou, in the west Pearl River Delta. It lies on the north shores of the Xijiang River, which is flows from west to east, and opposite of Gaoyao...
- Planned branch airports: Shaoguan
It has A and B gates, while there are A1-A18 and A124-A133. For the B gates, there are B01-B04, B201-B218, and B224-B233.
Airlines and destinations
FedEx Asia-Pacific hub
On July 13, 2005, FedEx Express signed a contract with the airport authority to relocate its Asia-Pacific hub from Subic Bay International AirportSubic Bay International Airport
-Cargo airlines:As of October 2010, there are no cargo airlines operating in Subic Bay International Airport.FedEx Express closed its hub at Subic Bay on February 6, 2009, this was the first hub to be closed in FedEx's history...
in the Philippines to Baiyun airport. The new Asia-Pacific hub covers an area of approximate 63 hectares (155.7 acre), with a total floor space of 82000 square metres (882,640.7 sq ft). At the beginning of operation, the hub employed more than 800 people and operated 136 flights a week, providing delivery services among 20 major cities in Asia and linking these cities to more than 220 countries and territories in the world
. The Guangzhou hub was, at the time of the opening, the largest FedEx hub outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but it was later surpassed by the expanded hub at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The hub has its own ramp control tower, a first one for an international air express cargo company facility in China, which enables FedEx to control aircraft movements on the ground, aircraft parking plans as well as loading and unloading priorities. Also included at the hub are a unique package and sorting system with 16 high-speed sorting lines, seven round-out conveyor belts and a total of 90 primary and secondary document-sorting splits. With the new advanced system, up to 24,000 packages can be sorted an hour at the start of operations.
Construction began in 2006 and the hub was originally scheduled to open on December 26, 2008. But on November 17, 2008, after several months of testing, FedEx announced that the opening date was delayed to the first half of 2009 when the hub was expected to be fully operational. FedEx claimed that the revised operation date "provided FedEx with the necessary time to fully test all systems and processes, as well as work closely with the Guangzhou authorities to ensure all necessary approvals are in place".
On December 17, 2008, the hub completed its first flight operations test. A FedEx MD-11
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller...
aircraft took off from Subic Bay International Airport in the Philippines and landed at Baiyun Airport at 5:50 am. The flight was handled by the new FedEx hub team, utilizing the FedEx ramp control tower and the new 24,000 package per hour sort system. Following a successful operations' process, the flight departed on time for its final destination at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. This Asia-Europe flight route operated four times per week during test run. FedEx also announced that the hub would start operation on February 6, 2009.
FedEx closed its 13-year-old Asia-Pacific hub at Subic Bay of northern Philippines on February 6, 2009 with the last flight leaving for Taiwan just before dawn, while hub operations have moved to Baiyun Airport.
The first flight that arrived at the new FedEx Asia-Pacific hub originated from Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport is a public airport located seven miles southwest of the central business district of Indianapolis, a city in Marion County, Indiana, United States. It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority...
. The MD-11 aircraft landed at 11:07 pm at Baiyun International Airport from Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, marking the opening and full operations of the new Asia-Pacific hub.
Cargo flights
See also
- Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (former)
- List of airports in the People's Republic of China
- List of the busiest airports in the People's Republic of China
- World's busiest airports by cargo trafficWorld's busiest airports by cargo trafficThe world's thirty busiest airports by cargo traffic for various periods . Numbers listed refer to loaded and unloaded freight in metric tonnes.-2010 final statistics:...
External links
23°23′33"N 113°17′56"E