The New Baiyun international airport opened for business on 5 August, serving the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and intended as a major hub in the booming Pearl River delta.
The airport opened more than six months later than intended but without any major operational hiccups. It has taken over from central Guangzhou's old Baiyun airport, which was at capacity.
New Baiyun International is north of Guangzhou, around 23km (14 miles) from the old airport which was, due to its strong domestic base, one of the three largest in mainland China, alongside those at Beijing and Shanghai.
It is hoped that New Baiyun will be a major hub for international passenger and cargo traffic, competing with several relatively new facilities within a 150km radius including Shenzhen, Zhuhai and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau
The two-runway airport has apron space for 66 aircraft. The passenger terminal has been designed to handle over 25 million passengers annually at first, rising to 80 million. The cargo terminal will initially handle one million tonnes of freight a year.
Source: Airline Business