Kunming airport bridges Yunnan’s opening-up

Yu Jingjing, who often travels abroad, has just returned to her home in Kunming from Hokkaido, Japan. After a short break, she will fly to Thailand next week to arrange some activities for the coming Songkran Festival in mid-April.

For business people like Yu Jingjing, who have frequent international business trips, fast and easy air service at Kunming Airport has brought them great convenience, while bridging Yunnan’s opening up to the outside world.

Back to 70 years ago when the People’s Republic of China was founded, people in Yunnan wouldn’t have thought of their home province’s becoming a pivot of opening-up to the world, let alone the Changshui village’s growing into an international air hub in northeast Kunming.

In November 2017, Yunnan provincial government and Civil Aviation Administration of China jointly issued the “Strategic Plan for Kunming International Air Hub”, initiating Kunming Airport’s transformation from a national gateway airport to an international air hub.

In 2018, Kunming Airport put through over 47 million passengers, ranking 35th in the world. Through the ‘air bridge’, Yunnan's advantages in location and economic growth are increasingly visible.

“In the past year, Kunming Airport has increased its presence in countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation,” said a staff with the airport. 

Among the 65 countries and regions along the BRI routes, 10 ASEAN countries, 5 South Asian capitals and other tourist cities are linked to Kunming via flights. In total, flights from Kunming have presence at 34 airports in south and southeast Asia.

With the air routes to Sihanoukville, Langkawi and Pattaya launched in 2018, Kunming Airport now runs 74 international routes for passengers. The number of international passengers grew 20% last year. Direct cargo routes to Kathmandu and Dubai opened, contributing to the yearly increase of 36.5% in air freight.

This year, Kunming Airport will start building the No.2 terminal. By 2020, Kunming Airport will basically be turned into an international aviation hub, with its annual passenger throughput reaching 67 million.

Reporting by Li Jie; trans-editing by Wang Shixue