Chongqing- On March 15, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued guidance on accelerating the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing world-class airport cluster. 

The Chengdu-Chongqing world-class airport cluster will take shape by 2025 and be entirely built by 2035.

The airport cluster refers to the national integrated airport system with Chengdu Tianfu and Chongqing Jiangbei airports hub as the core, other surrounding regions' airports as the backbone, and essential supplements. 

To build the Chengdu-Chongqing world-class airport cluster, what has specific plans for Chongqing to the target? A related official of Chongqing Municipal Transportation Bureau gave the answers. 

Dual-core of Chengdu-Chongqing airports 

The guidance clearly states that the Chengdu-Chongqing world-class airport cluster should be built leading by the dual-core airports to increase the competitiveness of the international aviation hubs. 

These dual-core airports refer to the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport and Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in two places.

For Chongqing, Jiangbei Airport will be the basis to build an international aviation hub, leading the inland opening and cultivating cargo hub functions. 

From Chongqing Municipal Transportation Bureau, currently, Jiangbei Airport has three runways and three terminals, with a peak hour capacity of 54 sorties. Now it is working on the fourth runway and T3B terminal's construction.

In 2021, Chongqing saw a passenger throughput of 35,766 million cargo and mail throughput of 477,000 tons, ranking the fourth and eighth in the country, respectively. 

It is expected that by 2024, Jiangbei Airport will meet the annual passenger throughput of 80 million, aircraft movements of 580,000, cargo and mail throughput of 1.2 million tons, with the fourth runway and T3B terminal completed.

Comprehensive transportation hub 

Merely improving the airports' construction is not enough. The various transportation modes system is needed to target the comprehensive transportation hub, integrating railways, tracks, highways, and urban arterial roads. 

Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport is working on these four transportation means. For example, two rail lines will enter the airport, and three highway lines will form an east-west passage to the airport. 

Chongqing will also actively carry out air-rail intermodal transport services to enhance the coverage of passenger flow in the central city and surrounding districts and counties.

Next, Chongqing will speed up the expansion of two surrounding districts' airports, Wanzhou Airport and Qianjiang Airport, to further amplify the aviation services' coverage. 

Efficient connection to international cities 

To date, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport has opened a total of 377 routes to 230 cities. There are 270 domestic routes and 152 cities open to navigation, while 106 international routes, 35 countries, and 78 cities are accessible. 

Chongqing views the international aviation hub as core to its global and nationwide airline network of the future, intending to achieve efficient connectivity with essential regions, like the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hongkong-Macao Greater Bay Area, etc. 

Specifically, Chongqing will focus on the west and south to accelerate the three major transit channels' construction: Europe-Chongqing-Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia-Chongqing-Africa, South Asia-Chongqing-North Ameria. 

Equally importantly, Chongqing Airport-type National Logistics Hub will make a big difference to Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport. As the core infrastructure of the logistics system, it is the only one in China to have port-types, land-port, and airport national logistics hub. 

This large-scale logistics hub can successfully connect with the China-Europe Railway Express and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, boosting Chongqing's further opening-up to the world.