Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

Overview

The airport is located in Guangzhou's Baiyun District and Huadu District and opened on August 5, 2004 as a replacement for the 72-year-old, identically named old airport, which is now closed. Built at a cost of 19.8 billion yuan, the new airport, is 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of downtown Guangzhou and nearly five times larger than its predecessor. "Baiyun" (白云) means "white cloud" in Chinese and refers to the Baiyun Mountain (Baiyunshan), 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.

Once commissioned, the New Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport overcame most of the problems associated with the old and dilapidated airport including limited space, overcrowding and a lack of room for expansion. 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

Terminal

The terminal 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 service international flights, domestic flights occupy the rest.

Runways

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport now has three runways. The third runway opened on Feb. 5, 2015. Unfortunately, the third runway can only be used for landing, since the flight path conflicts with that of nearby Foshan Shadi Airport, which also serves the catchment area for the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. The airport is planning to build two additional runways.

Future development

In August 2008, the airport's expansion plan was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

It includes a third runway, 3800 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 531,000-square-metre Terminal 2, equal to the size of the current terminal building. Other facilities comprise additional indoor and outdoor car parks, and a transport centre with metro and inter-city train services. The total cost of the entire project is estimated to be around ¥18.854 billion. Construction of the third runway began in 2012 and was completed in 2014. The whole project including the new terminal is scheduled to be finished in 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 the master plan, the airport will eventually have five runways and a third terminal building, located between the third and fifth runways. Although no completion date is given, preliminary study and preparation has been carried out by the airport management company.

Passenger

^1 : Air Madagascar's flights from Guangzhou to Antananarivo makes a stop in Saint–Denis. The airline, however, does not have traffic rights to transport passengers solely between Guangzhou and Saint–Denis

^2 : Despite being an international destination, these flights make a stop at a domestic destination and therefore depart from the domestic terminal/concourse.

^3 : Some of Kenya Airways's flights from Guangzhou to Naroibi make a stop in Hanoi. The airline, however, does not have traffic rights to transport passengers solely between Guangzhou and Hanoi.

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 63 hectares (160 acres), with a total floor space of 82,000 square metres (880,000 sq ft). 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.

Road

The airport is connected to downtown Guangzhou by the Airport Expressway.

Metro

Baiyun International Airport is served by the Airport South Station on Line 3 of the Guangzhou Metro. In the future, The Airport North Station will be opened in sync with the Terminal 2.

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.