Fuzhou Changle International Airport is an international airport serving Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, China. The airport was inaugurated on 23 June 1997, after being approved to start constructing by the state council in 1992. The current handling capacity is approximately 6.5 million people annually.
The airport is located near the shore of the Taiwan Strait in Zhanggang Subdistrict, Changle, about east of central Fuzhou. The airport is also a major hub for the namesake Fuzhou Airlines and XiamenAir.
In 2017, Fuzhou Airport handled 12,469,235 passengers and was 29th busiest in China by total passenger traffic. In 2016 the airport was the 23rd busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic and the 28th busiest airport by traffic movements.
History
Changle Airport was built to replace the old Fuzhou Yixu Airport (), a dual-use military and civil airport located in Cangshan District, and prepared for the base of the direct flights to Taiwan across the straits. The airport was designed by Singaporean RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd. The government of Fujian province hoped that the new airport could reach the standard of Singapore Changi Airport, but they soon realized it was too big, and shrank the scale of the airport. However, the scale of the airport was still much bigger than the norm that central government approved. Changle Airport was opened in 1997. Due to the lack of Passenger flow, the airport had a great deficit in early years of operation. In 2003, the management of the airport was taken over by Xiamen International Airport Group, and began profiting from 2005.
In February 2017, Xiamen Airlines operated Changle's first direct route to North America, with a Boeing 787-9 service to New York–JFK airport. On 11 December 2018, a second intercontinental route to Paris was launched.
Future expansion
In September 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission approved for airport phase two expansion project. The project includes the following construction works: Construction of a 3600m x 60m second runway and relevant taxiway. Construction of a 255,000m2 second terminal. Construction of 60 new aircraft stands, eight cargo aircraft stands and relevant supporting facilities. Construction of second air traffic control tower and new 9000m² air traffic management centre. Reconstruction of existing air traffic control tower and air traffic management centre. The airport targets 36 million passengers and 450,000 tonnes cargo per year by 2030 upon project completion.
Location
Fuzhou Changle International Airport is located at 25°56´ north latitude and 119°39´ east longitude. It is surrounded by the East China Sea on three sides. The surrounding area of the airport is flat, but it extends southwest and northeast, surrounded by mountains.
Traffic
Taxi
There is a taxi waiting at the exit of the arrival hall. The city's unified price starts at 10 yuan per , and 2 yuan per thereafter.
Bus
The airport passenger terminal has a number of fixed shuttle routes to Fuzhou city and surrounding areas, opening hours from 4:30-22:30.
Highway
There are many expressways that can directly reach Changle International Airport, such as Shenhai Expressway, Fuyin Expressway, and Airport Expressway.
Subway
According to the newly released intercity railway construction plan for the west coast of Fujian Province, the Fuzhou-Changle Airport Intercity Railway (F1/3) will be directly connected to the airport, and will be passed by Metro Line 6 near the airport.
Climate
Fuzhou Changle International Airport has a subtropical maritime climate, with the northeast monsoon prevailing in the winter half year and the southwest monsoon in the summer half year. There will be continuous rainy weather in spring. Due to typhoon and subtropical high pressure, there are often strong winds and heavy rains in summer. There will be continuously sunny weather in winter.
In addition to the southerly winds in the south of July, Changle Airport is dominated by the northerly winds in the other 11 months, and there are mountain hills in the west of the Changle Plain.
Typical climate characteristics of Changle Airport are: (1), cloudy, low cloud base; (2) abundant rainfall, large number of rainy days; (3) fast wind speed, large number of windy days, and the annual average wind speed is 4.5 m/s (4) the airport has less thunderstorms, but the airport airspace has frequent thunderstorms (5)well marked sea-land breeze effect (6) humid air, the annual average relative humidity is 75%.