Qionghai Bo'ao Airport is an airport serving the city of

Qionghai Qionghai, or in local Hainanese dialect as Kheng Hai, is one of the seven county-level cities of Hainan province, China. Although called a "city", Qionghai refers to a large land area in Hainan - an area which was once a county. Within this area ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

Province, China. The airport received approval from the national government in January 2013, and was opened on 17 March 2016 after three years of construction.

History

The Qionghai airport was built to facilitate travel to the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual political event held away in

Boao Bo'ao/Boao () is a town located next to the eastern coastal city of Qionghai in Hainan Province, People's Republic of China, near the mouth of the Wanquan River where it discharges into the South China Sea. The town is away from Qionghai, awa ...

. The airport also serves rising tourism to the province of

. A feasibility study on the airport was approved by government officials in December 2012, followed by the master plan in May 2013. A

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are ...

ceremony was held on 17 March 2015. After a test flight in March 2016, the airport received its first commercial flight a

Hainan Airlines Hainan Airlines Co., Ltd. (HNA, ) is an airline headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China. The airline is rated as a 5-star airline by Skytrax. It is the largest civilian-run and majority state-owned air transport company, ...

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

from

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

on 17 March 2016. For a short period thereafter, the airport remained open to domestic charter flights carrying Boao Forum attendees. After the forum, the Qionghai airport closed so that a new international terminal and a runway extension could be completed before the next forum. The airport reopened on 29 December 2016, receiving an Air Guilin flight from

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 ...

Facilities

Qionghai Airport has a 3,200-meter runway capable of handling large jet aircraft, a 9,000 square-meter terminal building, and 26 aircraft parking aprons. It is designed to handle 480,000 passengers and 1,440 tons of cargo annually by 2020.

Airlines and destinations

References

{{authority control Airports in Hainan Airports established in 2016 2016 establishments in China