Guangzhou Airport Plans 30 New International Routes

By Bryan Grogan, September 18, 2018

Officials met at the 24th World Route Development Forum from September 15 to 18 in Guangzhou, and major developments were announced for the future of international transportation to and from the city.

Zhang Shuofu, party secretary in Guangzhou, revealed the city’s aviation industry has no plans to slow down their development, outlining Baiyun Airport's long term plan to open a third terminal and two more runways in the coming years, as reported by The Paper.

Baiyun Airport currently has two terminals and three runways and had 65 million passengers commuting in 2017. The Guangzhou Airport Authority hopes to reach 70 million passengers this year and aims for 100 million passengers per year by 2025.

Furthermore, Zhang spoke about the airport's plan for the next three years, as officials aim to open 10 more long haul routes to Europe and America, in addition to the 20 new international routes announced earlier this year by Airport Chairman Qiu Jiachen.

At the start of the forum, Baiyun Airport officials signed a memorandum of understanding with seven airlines to open new routes to Sao Paulo, Milan, St. Petersburg and other major cities.

On April 26 of this year the airport opened its second terminal, with visitors at this year’s forum flocking to the city to view Baiyun Airport’s new airline infrastructure.

In other developments over the weekend, China Southern Airline revealed plans to boost its aircraft fleet from 800 to 2,000 by 2035. China Southern Chief Executive Tan Wan Geng also told reporters at the event about the airline’s plan to open up routes to South America within the next three years.

From 2019 forward, the airline will also be based out of Beijing’s Daxing International Airport.

Baiyun Airport looks set to continue as Guangdong’s largest airport, with Shenzhen seeing around 45 million passengers in 2017.

As we reported before, Guangzhou is just the third Chinese city to hold the World Route Development Forum after Beijing and Shanghai and just the 24th city in the world to host the prestigious event.

[Cover image via Wikimedia]