Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is an airport serving

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

, the capital of the

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 of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

province, China. It was opened on 15 April 1995, replacing the old Hankou Wangjiadun Airport and Nanhu Airport as the major airport of Wuhan. The airport is located in Wuhan's suburban

Huangpi District Huangpi District () is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China, situated on the northern (left) bank of the Yangtze River. The Sheshui enters the Yangtze at Huangpi. The district is pr ...

, around to the north of Wuhan city center. It is the busiest airport in central China as it is geographically located in the centre of China's airline route network. The airport served 20,772,000 passengers in 2016, making it the 14th busiest airport by passenger traffic in China. The airport is a focus city for Air China,

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 i ...

, and

China Southern Airlines China Southern Airlines Company Limited is an airline headquartered in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and is the largest airline in China. Established on 1 July 1988 following the restructuring of the CAAC Airlines that acqu ...

. The airport has flights to international destinations such as

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San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

, Sydney, Bali,

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, and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. The name Tianhe () can be literally translated as "Sky River"; Tianhe is also one of the names for the

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in ancient Chinese. Since 2019, passengers from 53 countries such as the EU countries, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the U.S., when transiting to a third country, can enter China from this airport without a Chinese visa for up to 144 hours. On 23 January 2020, the airport was closed due to the

2020 Hubei lockdowns On 23 January 2020, the central government of China imposed a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei in an effort to quarantine the center of an outbreak of COVID-19; this action was commonly referred to as the Wuhan lockdown (). The Worl ...

in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, where the first outbreak happened in Wuhan. The airport reopened on 8 April 2020 following a large-scale disinfection.

History

To replace the old Wangjiadun Airport and the larger, international Nanhu Airport, the Chinese government permitted plans to build a commercial airport in Tianhe Town,

on 1 July 1985. The first term construction started in December 1989 and finished in April 1994. It initially operated domestic flights but later in 2000, the CAA re-designated it as an international airport. Nanhu Airport was the main airport of Wuhan before 1995. Although built in 1936 as a military airport and 1951 as a civil airport, it was located near the city center, and by 1994, air traffic had climaxed and the airport was too small to handle larger amount of passengers. The first international flight from and to

only started on Halloween 1992, when Wuhan-

Vientiane Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...

route was opened. The airport was opened on 15 April 1995, and the old Nanhu Airport is closed in the same time. Any passengers still waiting at Nanhu Airport were immediately taken by bus to the new Tianhe Airport. Wangjiadun Airport still opened by that time, but mainly for military operations, then closed and demolished in 2007. The airport has expanded twice – first for terminal 2 and second for terminal 3, new control tower and the second runway. Wuhan opened up to intercontinental flights when

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

began service from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

on 11 April 2012, and two years later opened up to the United States non-stop when China Southern Airlines announced, in September 2014, a daily non-stop flight to

, originating from

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, operating with a

Boeing 787 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...

to begin 16 December 2014.

Facilities

Runways

Tianhe International Airport has two runways.

Runway West (04L 22R)

Length: , width:

Runway East (04R 22L main runway)

Length: , width:

ILS

Tianhe Airport equipped with ILS II in south side (main landing side), ILS I in north side. The East runway is equipped with blind landing systems.

Terminals

Terminal 1 (demolished)

Terminal 1 was opened in 1995 when all flight services were transferred from Nanhu Airport to Tianhe International Airport. It was located at where the west concourse of Terminal 3 stands nowadays. It had been the only terminal of the airport until Terminal 2 was completed in 2008. From 2008 onwards, all domestic flights were operated at T2 while international flights were still operated at T1. T1 was closed in 2010 after serving international flights for two years. A new international terminal was built in 2010, and has undergone subsequent expansions after seeing major increase of international travelers. The terminal was demolished during the construction of Terminal 3.

Terminal 2 (closed)

Terminal 2 was the main terminal for Tianhe Airport during 2008–2017, which handled only domestic airlines. It has a floor area of 121,200 square meters and a designed capacity to handle 13 million passengers and 320,000 tons of cargo a year. The project was completed on 15 April 2008, at a total cost of 3.37 billion yuan (421.5 million US dollars). By 2010, Wuhan served at least 5 international and 100 domestic routes. The airport's cargo-handling capacity is to reach 144,000 tons. Terminal 2 was closed when Terminal 3 were officially opened in mid 2017 for the upgrade construction.

International Terminal (closed)

Wuhan Tianhe Airport International Terminal - 2012 (cropped)

The International Terminal was opened in December 2010 and all international flights and flights to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan operated at the International Terminal from 2010 to 2017. After the old Terminal 1 was closed in 2010, the International Terminal was sometimes mistakenly called "T1" by passengers. The single-floor terminal is located at the southwest of Terminal 2. It has a floor area of 5310 square meters, shared by both departure and arrival facilities. To handle wide-body jet within limited ramp, there is no air-bridge for this terminal. Due to its compact size and the growing number of international flights, there were complaints that Terminal 1 was "too crowded". In 2013, the average departure traffic was 880 per hour during the peak season, which was far greater than its designed maximum capacity of 550. The International Terminal was closed in mid 2017 and it will be turned to a chartered and VIP terminal in the future.

Terminal 3

Starting from 31 August 2017, all flights from the original International Terminal (international, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and T2 (domestic) have been moved to Terminal 3, which has a passenger capacity of 35 million. Following the opening of the new Terminal 3, International Terminal (IT) and Terminal 2 (T2) were closed temporarily for renovation. IT is scheduled to operate as the VIP terminal. T2 will undergo renovation and reopen when passengers in T3 exceed the design limit. The T3 has a new departure lounge, restaurants and duty-free shops. The construction of Terminal 3 started in June 2013 and it was opened on 31 August 2017. A new runway, new control tower, and a transportation hub connecting the airport to the city with an intercity railway and a

metro line The Metro Line is a light rail transit line on the Edmonton LRT system. The line operates from northwest Edmonton to south Edmonton, and was scheduled to have begun operation by spring 2014 but instead opened on September 6, 2015, at a reduced ...

have been built and opened along with the new terminal.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Gallery

file:Wuhan airport 2.jpg, Airport departure hall file:2 China Eastern.JPG, A

China Eastern 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 ...

airplane approaching Terminal 2 File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport Inside.jpg, inside the airport file:Wuhan Tianhe Airport Inside 4.jpg, Baggage claim area file:Wuhan Tianhe Airport 3.jpg, Parking garage under the airport file:ChinaXinhuaAirlines.jpg, A Xinhua Airline plane in front of the then Terminal 2 file:Wuhan Tianhe Airport International Terminal.jpg, International terminal (the new Terminal 1) file:Wuhan Tianhe Airport Expressway.jpg, The first airport expressway file:Wuhan Tianhe Airport 2nd Expressway.jpg, The second airport expressway File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 1.jpg , Wuhan Tianhe Terminal 3 File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 2.jpg File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 3.jpg File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 4.jpg File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 5.jpg File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 6.jpg File:Wuhan Tianhe Airport T3 7.jpg

Transportation

Roads

Two tolled expressways, the S18 Wuhan Airport Expressway and the S19 Wuhan Airport 2nd Expressway, connect the airport to downtown Hankou.

Public Transit

There is a limited bus service between Wuhan Tianhe Airport and several bus stops in the urban area of

. The Wuhan–Xiaogan intercity railway, one of the lines of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area intercity railway, serves Wuhan Tianhe Airport. This railway opened in December 2016. The extension of Line 2 of

Wuhan Metro Wuhan Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China. Owned and operated by Wuhan Metro Group Co., Ltd., the network now includes 11 lines, 282 stations, and of route length. With 1.22 billion annual passengers in 2019, W ...

Tianhe International Airport station Tianhe International Airport Station (), is a station on Line 2 of Wuhan Metro and it is the northern terminus of Line 2. It entered revenue service on December 28, 2016. It is located in Huangpi District and it serves Wuhan Tianhe International ...

opened on 28 December 2016.

Future development

According to the 2019-2025 development plan by Hubei Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the fourth terminal, a new satellite terminal and a third runway will be built. Presently, Tianhe is the only civic airport in the Wuhan metropolitan area. However, the city authorities are considering repurposing the military Shanpo Airfield (山坡机场; ), located in the city's far southern suburbs (Shanpo Township,

Jiangxia District Jiangxia District () is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China, situated on the eastern (right) bank of the Yangtze River. Jiangxia district has an area of and a population of 680,0 ...

), as a commercial cargo airport. If the plans are implemented, Shanpo will become Wuhan's second airport.武汉第二机场项目已上报发改委江夏山坡机场开始“控违”
(The plan for Wuhan's second airport has been submitted to the

National Development and Reform Commission The National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the State Council, which has b ...

. Shanpo Airfield, in Jiangxia District, started to be considered), 21 November 2012

References

External links

Wuhan Tianhe International Airport Official website
{{authority control Airports in Hubei Transport in Wuhan Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in China Airports established in 1995 1995 establishments in China