Guilin Qifengling Airport is a

military airport An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...

, Guangxi, China. Built in 1958, the airport originally served all commercial traffic to Guilin. It was poorly equipped to handle the rapid increase in tourism to the city during the 1990s. As a result, Liangjiang International Airport was opened in 1996 and all commercial flights shifted to it.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the airport was known as Kweilin Airfield and was used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Fourteenth Air Force as part of the China Defensive Campaign (1942–45). The airfield is also known as 李家村机场 in Chinese to distinguish other airfield in the city. Kweilin was the headquarters of the 23d Fighter Group, the "Flying Tigers" during late 1943 and through most of 1944 and also its command and control unit, the

68th Composite Wing The 68th Composite Wing was a United States Army Air Forces organization. It was a command and control organization of Fourteenth Air Force that fought in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. The wing was formed as an expansion of the ...

. The unit flew

P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and ...

and later P-51 Mustang fighter bombers from the airport, attacking Japanese targets and supporting Chinese army units. In support of the combat units, Kweilin was also the home of the

8th Reconnaissance Group 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of the ...

, which operated unarmed

P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive tw ...

aircraft equipped with an array of mapping cameras to gather intelligence over Japanese-held areas. The Flying Tigers departed the base in late 1944, being replaced by elements of the Chinese-American Composite Wing (CACW), which flew B-25 Mitchell and P-51 Mustang fighters from the airport on combat missions until the end of the war in September 1945. The Americans closed their facilities after the war ended in September 1945. Qifengling Airport was rebuilt in 1958, serving both civil and military air traffic. During the 1990s, tourism to

rose significantly. The majority of tourists came from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and travelled to Guilin by air. In 1982, Qifengling Airport received 471,200 passengers; in 1991, the airport handled 1,456,000 passengers and was serving 16 airlines. The runway, small terminal, and

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

of the airport grew inadequate due to this increased activity. Work on a new airport started in 1993 and was completed in 1996. Commercial flights shifted to the new Liangjiang International Airport upon its opening in October 1996.

Airfield

Qifengling Airport has one runway, 18/36, with dimensions .

Accidents and incidents

* On 26 April 1982, a Hawker Siddeley Trident 2E operating CAAC Flight 3303 was on approach to Qifengling Airport when it crashed into a mountain in

Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County () is a county within the prefecture-level city of Guilin, Guangxi, China. The county spans a total area of , and has a population of approximately 300,000 as of 2011. History The area was first incorporated und ...

, about southeast of Guilin. All 112 passengers and crew on board were killed. * On 14 September 1983, a

CAAC The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the Chinese civil aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents. As the aviation authority responsible f ...

Hawker Siddeley Trident 2E was taxiing onto the runway at Qifengling Airport when a Harbin H-5 belonging to the Chinese military crashed into it, leaving a hole in the front right side of the Trident and killing 11 of its passengers. * On 24 November 1992, a

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

operating China Southern Airlines Flight 3943 crashed into a mountain about form Guilin while it was approaching Qifengling Airport. The incident killed all 141 occupants of the aircraft, and was the worst plane crash to occur within

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

References

External links

{{authority control Airports in Guangxi Airports established in 1958 1958 establishments in China Buildings and structures in Guilin Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in China Chinese Air Force bases Defunct airports in China