ROUTES ASIA: Chengdu Shuangliu - The Gateway to Sichuan

In the last decade air traffic at Chengdu Shuangliu International (CDIA) has grown almost five fold as the facility, the main access point into the Sichuan province of China, develops into one of the country’s major airports. At the change of the Millennium CDIA was handling a passenger throughput of 5.52 million, a figure that almost trebled to 13.89 million by 2005, an average annual increase of ten per cent. By 2010 this figure had almost doubled again to 25.80 million, a figure that ranked it as the fastest-growing airport in Central and Western China, and last year this grew to 29.07 million, a 12.7 per cent annual growth. It is now the fifth largest airport in China behind Beijing Capital International, Guangzhou Baiyun, Shanghai Pudong and Shanghai Hongqiao.

The airport is located is located in the north of Shuangliu County, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) southwest of downtown Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Formerly known as Shuangguisi Airport, it was opened as an auxiliary military airfield in 1938 during the second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. At the time, it only handled small biplanes in the form of Nationalist Chinese Air Force Polikarpov I-15 fighters of the 5th Pursuit Group, which were based for aerial defence of the Chengdu area against raids.

During World War II, the airport was known as Shwangliu (Shuangliu) Airfield and was used by the United States Army Air Forces Fourteenth Air Force during the mid-1940s as part of the China Defensive Campaign and became the base for P-47 Thunderbolt figher bombers and P-38 Lightnings. After the US departed in 1945 the facility remained under the control of the military until it was recertified as a civilian airfield under the Shuangliu name in December 1956 and the following year the flights of the Chengdu Civil Aviation Company were switched from Guanghan Airport with regular links opened to destinations across China.

The airport was then a solely domestic facility, mainly supporting air services within Sichuan and Chongqing. However, significant improvements of infrastructure including an extension of the Runway to its present 3,600 metres (11,811ft) enabling the arrival of larger capacity airliners and the renovation of the original terminal building has brought growth new traffic, including the introduction of direct international flights. A second runway was opened in December 2009 and CDIA is now a major hub for Air China, supplementing its activities at Beijing Capital International, while Sichuan Airlines and Chengdu Airlines are both also based at the facility.

As the table above illustrates the domestic market remains the principal focus of traffic at CDIA, accounting for 94.5 per cent of total O&D passengers. Unsurprisingly, the major gateways of Beijing Capital International and Guangzhou Baiyun dominate the passenger flows. However, the international sector is now taking on a notable significance as major foreign carriers look to enter the emerging market.

“Although CDIA’s main key market is at home, the throughput of international and regional passengers is increasing at a high speed,” Mr YAN Yuhua, Manager Aviation Marketing Department, CDIA, confirmed to The HUB in an exclusive interview ahead of Routes Asia.

International flights started at CDIA in September 1993 when China Southwest Airlines inaugurated flights to Bangkok, adding non-stop links to Singapore two months later. Angel Airlines, a start-up, also entered the Chengdu - Bangkok market from March 1999.

The first foreign carrier to launch scheduled commercial flights to CDIA was South Korean operator Asiana Airlines which introduced a twice weekly connection to Seoul Incheon in May 2001 and soon others followed with Thai Airways International (from Bangkok) and SilkAir (from Singapore) adding flights the following year. During 2002, China Southwest Airlines also added the first direct flights into Japan from the airport with a link to Tokyo Narita, but the carrier was merged into Air China, which took over the operation of its services from Chengdu from the start of 2003.

International network growth continued but the next notable landmark was the arrival of the first long-haul service to Europe. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines inaugurated flights to Chengdu from its Amsterdam Airport Schiphol hub in May 2006 and this service remains the airport’s sole direct link into the Continent providing important feed into an important market. AirAsia X arrived on the scene in December 2009, providing low-cost links to Kuala Lumpur, while Etihad Airways introduced flights from Abu Dhabi in December 2011, providing key global connectivity.

Due to its geographic position, CDIA was the first Chinese airport to have regular links to Tibet and it has subsequently developed as a key gateway into the highland region. Mr YAN Yuhua describes its air service links to Tibet as “the most important route for passengers at home and abroad to travel and do business in Tibet”. Alongside flights to Lhasa, there are also links from Chengdu to Nyingchi, Diqing, Ali and Bangda which, according to Mr YAN Yuhua, “fully satisfy the needs of passengers”.

CDIA is now served by 20 domestic operators, while 13 foreign airlines provide international flights, including major national carriers from across the Asian region. The table below highlights the largest operators at CDIA by available seat capacity over the past five years. During that period capacity has increased from 10.7 million to 17.1 million seats, with Air China accounting for a third of all seats and Sichuan Airlines around a fifth.

According to Mr YAN Yuhua, 12 airlines have now established offices at the airport, a notable long-term commitment to facility, including major freight ventures such as AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Korean Air Cargo and logistics integrators FedEx and UPS. “Together our cargo airlines provide freight links on 23 routes covering Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Northeast Asia and Hong Kong,” he added. The airport’s freight area now encompasses three stations over a 120,000 square metre facility and is able to handle around 1.2 million tonnes of cargo annually.

“The cargo station operated by Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport Aviation Ground Services Company is the newest, largest and most advanced one with an area of 55,000 square meters at present. The international part and domestic part cover 22,500 square meters respectively,” explained Mr YAN Yuhua. In 2011, the cargo throughput of CDIA was 478,000 tonnes, ranking it as the fifth largest freight airport in the country and the largest among airports in central and western region of China.

The growth of CDIA is a major story but its management will not rest and they are working hard to add additional routes across the globe and position the facility as the major international hub for Central and Western China. “We would like to build our network to economically developed areas in Europe, America, Australia, Asia and Africa in order to build a closer relationship with important air hubs worldwide, and to further optimise our international passenger and cargo network,” explained Mr YAN Yuhua. Early next month Air China will inaugurate flights to Mumbai in India, while Vietnam Airlines will introduce a connection to Hanoi in June.

“We are also planning to form a transfer network among airports in West China to reinforce connections to the country’s three largest hubs - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and are working with our based airlines to build more express routes within a one hour range and regional routes within a two hour range,” added Mr YAN Yuhua.

The airport is also planning for the emergence of further budget airlines – both local and foreign - entering the Chinese market. It is already served by AirAsia X from Kuala Lumpur and local venture Spring Airlines from Shanghai Pudong, Shijiazhuang and Shenyang, but Mr YAN Yuhua expects further movement in this market. “We believe there will be more and more low cost carriers coming to Chengdu,” he said. “With a strong economic power and a huge passenger market, Chengdu is a great place for low-cost carriers to show their special advantages, to benefit and facilitate Chengdu and the whole central and western region.”

The airport has even played down any potential impact from the expanded high-speed rail network in China. “As we are located in a basin, the railway construction in central and western region is far behind the eastern region. Therefore, high-speed rail lines have little effect on domestic routes of Chengdu, especially routes longer than 800km,” explained Mr YAN Yuhua.

To support the increasing demand and limit any potential strain on existing resources, CDIA is currently working on a enhancing its terminal facilities. Work started on the T2 building in June 2009 and this will be completed during the second half of this year, increasing annual capacity to 35 million passengers. There are also plans to potentially add a third runway or even to construct a second airport in the city but these remain at the discussion stage and no planning approval has yet been granted for such projects.

The entry into service of Chengdu’s second runway in December 2009 as also opened additional options for the airport as it is capable of handling the latest very large aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8I. The A380 has already visited the airport but Mr YAN Yuhua expects scheduled services to commence soon, suggesting that the first flights could begin as early as the second half of this year. “With the completion of the Terminal 2 construction (including lounges and air bridges especially for the A380) and the development of aviation market in Chengdu, we estimate that those large aircraft will be operated in Chengdu this year,” he said.

CDIA has ambitions to overtake Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and become the fourth largest commercial air hub in China and Mr YAN Yuhua hopes that Routes Asia will provide the platform for it to achieve this. “We regard Routes Asia as a great chance to show the airport’s comprehensive support capability and service quality to airlines at home and abroad. At the same time, it is also a chance to publicise the economic power, commercial chances, tourism resources and potential passenger market of Chengdu and Sichuan andthe hub position of CDIA in central and western region of China,” he said. “We hope we can meet more airlines at this conference to build a solid foundation to open more international routes in the future.”