Xinyang Minggang Airport , or Minggang Air Base, is a dual-use civil and military airport serving the city of

Xinyang Xinyang (; postal: Sinyang) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost administrative division in the province. Its total population was 6,234,401 according to the 2020 census. As of t ...

Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It is in the town of

Minggang Minggang () is a town in Pingqiao District, Xinyang, Henan Province in Central China. The population in (2005) was 69,100. Transport Airport *Xinyang Minggang Airport Xinyang Minggang Airport , or Minggang Air Base, is a dual-use civil and mil ...

Pingqiao District Pingqiao District () is a district of the city of Xinyang, Henan province, China, bordering Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name ...

, about from downtown Xinyang and from the city of

Zhumadian Zhumadian (; postal: Chumatien) is a prefecture-level city in southern Henan province, China. It borders Xinyang to the south, Nanyang to the west, Pingdingshan to the northwest, Luohe to the north, Zhoukou to the northeast, and the province of An ...

History

The military air base formerly known as ''Zhumadian Airbase'' was built in the 1930s and served important national defense operations following the ''

Manchurian Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...

; Zhumadian'' was critical in supporting the

Nationalist Chinese Air Force Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

operations in the northern-front during the War of Resistance-World War II, and was where the 4th Fighter-Attack Group of the Chinese Air Force launched their close-air support missions for Chinese ground forces fighting the Imperial Japanese Army at the '' Battle of Taierzhuang''. The airbase was completely modernized in 1958, and in September 2011, the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

and the Central Military Commission approved the proposal to convert the base to a dual-use airport. Construction began in November 2015, and a test flight was completed on 23 May 2018. The airport was officially opened on 28 October 2018 for commercial passenger operations, with an inaugural

China Eastern Airlines China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (), also known as China Eastern, is an airline headquartered in the China Eastern Airlines Building, on the grounds of Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Changning District, Shanghai. It is ...

MU9921 flight from

Xi'an Xianyang International Airport Xi'an Xianyang International Airport is the main airport serving Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, as well as the whole Guanzhong area. Covering an area of , it is the largest airport in Northwest China, and the second largest airport in Northern C ...

. The construction budget was 360 million yuan.

Facilities

Xinyang Minggang Airport has a runway that is 2,700 meters long and 50 meters wide (class 4C), and a 5,000 square-meter terminal building. It is projected to handle 300,000 passengers and 2,500 tons of cargo per year by 2020.

History

Facilities

Airlines and destinations