Construction of new Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport in Qingdao, China is complete. Located about 39km from Qingdao’s city center, the International Airport was built to replace the saturated Qingdao Liuting International Airport; currently the primary airport in Shandong Province and the 17th busiest airport in China, serving over 20 million passengers in 2016.
The US $5.8bn aviation facility spans 3,066 hectares, twice the size of London’s Heathrow Airport. It will be the city’s first 4F-class airport, meaning its big enough to accommodate the world’s largest commercial aircraft, including A380s and Boeing 787s; making it a new transportation hub in Northeast Asia.
Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport Capacity
The new airport will dramatically boost the province’s air traffic capacity. Initially, its two runways will be able to handle 35 million passengers, 500,000 metric tons of cargo and almost 300,000 landings and takeoffs by 2025. Two more runways will be added in the second phase, further increasing its capacity to 60 million passengers, a million tons of cargo and 452,000 annual landings and takeoffs.
Dubbed a “sponge airport,” Qingdao Jiaodong has been designed to absorb and store excess rainwater that can be recycled and reused when needed. High-speed rail and subway lines will connect Qingdao to the new airport, with officials saying it will take about an hour to travel from the city center to the new hub.
