Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the major airport of Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Both airport codes were inherited from the former Baiyun Airport, and the IATA code is derived from Guangzhou's historical romanization Canton. Baiyun Airport serves as a hub for China Southern Airlines, FedEx Express, 9 Air, Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines.
In 2019, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was China's third-busiest and world's 11th-busiest airport by passenger traffic, with 65.8 million passengers handled. As for cargo traffic, the airport was China's third-busiest, as well as the third-busiest airport nationwide in terms of aircraft movements.
Overview
1932–2004
The old Baiyun Airport opened in 1932. Due to the expansion of Guangzhou, the airport could not expand to meet passengers needs as buildings surrounded the airport. On August 5, 2004, the new Baiyun Airport opened and the old airport was closed.Since 2004
The new airport is located in Guangzhou's Baiyun District and Huadu District and opened on August5, 2004 as a replacement for the 72-year-old, identically named former airport, which is now closed. Built at a cost of 19.8 billion yuan, the new airport is north of downtown Guangzhou and nearly five times larger than its predecessor. "Baiyun" means "white cloud" in Chinese and refers to the Baiyun Mountain, near the former airport even though the mountain is much closer to downtown Guangzhou than it is to the new airport. It is also referred to as "New Baiyun" to distinguish it from the previous airport, but this is not a part of the official name.Former curfews and restrictions did not apply to the new airport so it could operate 24 hours a day, allowing China Southern Airlines to maximise intercontinental route utilisation with overnight flights. Other airlines also benefit from the removal of previous restrictions.
Data
- Runways: 3—, and
- Aircraft parking bays: 173
- Current passenger capacity: 45 million passengers per year
- * Planned passenger capacity in 2020: 80 million passengers per year
- Current cargo capacity: 1 million tonnes
- * Planned cargo capacity in 2020: 2.5 million tonnes
- Destinations: 100
- Branch airports: Jieyang, Meizhou, Zhanjiang
- * Planned branch airports: Shaoguan, Zhaoqing
Facilities
Terminal 1
Terminal 1 has three components, Main Terminal, Area A and Area B. All check-in counters and most retail stores are placed at the Main Terminal. The two concourses controlled by individual security checkpoints, named Area A and Area B, are the boarding gates, security checkpoints, border control, custom & quarantine, baggage reclaim and relative facilities.Since 24 January 2016, East Pier 1 & 2 are dedicated to serve international flights, domestic flights occupy the rest.
Terminal 2
Terminal 2 opened on April 26, 2018, with an area measuring over 658,000 square metres making it one of the world's largest airport terminal facilities. When Terminal 2 officially operates, it will be typically home to China Southern Airlines. In addition, most of SkyTeam member airlines will also typically operate in Terminal 2.| Airlines | Check-in Counter | |
| Domestic | China Southern Airlines, XiamenAir, Sichuan Airlines, Chongqing Airlines, Hebei Airlines | C, D, E, F, G, J |
| International | Japan Airlines, Kenya Airways, Saudia, Garuda Indonesia | M |
| International | Korean Air, China Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Air France, Thai Airways, Aeroflot, Sichuan Airlines | N |
| International | China Southern Airlines | P, Q |
The new transport centre is under construction on the south of terminal 2, passengers will be able to go to Guangzhou downtown by taking metro, rail, bus or taxi there.
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 Airport in the Philippines to Baiyun Airport. The new Asia-Pacific hub covers an area of approximate, with a total floor space of. 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 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. Included at the hub are a unique package and sorting system with 16 high-speed sorting lines, seven round-out conveyor belts and 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. 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, using 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.
Runways
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport now has three runways. The third runway opened on February 5, 2015, which temporarily tackled the long‐standing capacity obstacle. The operation of the third runway expanded Baiyun Airport's capacity, pushing business up. Unfortunately, the third runway can only be used for landing, as its airspace conflicts with Foshan airport. The airport is planning to build two additional runways.Expansion
In August 2008, the airport's expansion plan was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.It included a third runway, 3,800 metres in length and 60 metres in width, located 400 metres to the east of the existing east runway. The centrepiece of the project is a 658,000-square-metre Terminal 2. Other facilities comprise new indoor and outdoor car parks and a transportation centre with metro and inter-city train services. The total cost of the entire project was estimated to be around ¥18.854 billion. Construction of the third runway began in 2012 and the runway commenced operation in early 2015. The whole project including the new terminal was scheduled to be finished in February 2018, at which time the airport will be able to handle 80 million passengers and 2.5 million tonnes of cargo a year.
According to its master plan, Baiyun Airport will eventually have five runways and a third terminal building, located between the third and fifth runways. When completed, the passenger and cargo handling capacity of the airport will be increased to over 100 million and 5 million tonnes, respectively. A preliminary timetable gives the completion date of 2022.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Statistics
Ground transportation
Inter-Terminal
There is a free shuttle bus that goes between Terminals 1 and 2.Road
The airport is connected to downtown Guangzhou by the S41 Guangzhou Airport Expressway.Rail
which is under construction will set the Baiyun Airport Terminal 1 Station, the Baiyun Airport Terminal 2 Station and the Baiyun Airport Terminal 3 Station in the airport. The rail will connect the airport to the Guangzhou South railway station and the Guangzhou North railway station.Metro
Baiyun International Airport is served by the Airport South Station and the Airport North Station on Line 3 of Guangzhou Metro.In the future, Guangzhou Metro Line 18 has a plan to link the airport to the Guangzhou downtown.
Bus
There are 5 Airport Express lines and 6 Airport Non-stop lines to round-trip between airport and downtown. Buses will take passengers to city's major hotels, grand plaza and transportation center, such as Garden Hotel, Guangdong Hotel, CITIC Plaza, Haizhu Square, Tianhe Coach Station, Guangzhou North Station and so on.To service passengers out of Guangzhou city, the airport also provides intra city bus service. The buses will take up passengers from/to Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and so on.