Located on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary, 32km away from the downtown of Shenzhen, Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport is a large modern international airport integrating sea, land, air and rail transport in China. It was opened to traffic in October 1991, became an international airport in May 1993, and developed into China’s fourth largest airport in 1996. It is one of the first airports in China to be built by local governments and operated locally, and to realize market-oriented and entrepreneurial operation and management in civil aviation.
Covering a total area of 28.3 square kilometers, Shenzhen Airport plans to finally have three runways, three terminals and one satellite hall to handle the business demand of long-term passenger throughput of 100 million, the short-term target year (2030) of 2.6 million tons of cargo and mail, and the long-term target year (2050) of 4.5 million tons. At present, Shenzhen Airport has two long-distance parallel runways to meet the takeoff and landing requirements of all civil aircrafts. As a landmark project in the Greater Bay Area, the third runway has broken ground in March 2020. The east terminal area (T1) and north terminal area (T2) are under construction. Terminal 3 in the south terminal area is the only operating one at present. It was put into use in 2013, with a building area of about 451,000 square meters and 62 contact stands. The satellite hall at the north wing of Terminal 3 was opened on December 7, 2021, connecting T3 and T2 (under construction) through MRT, with a total construction area of about 240,000 square meters.
Over the past three decades of operation, Shenzhen Airport has carried out the mission of serving the society and facilitating the development of Shenzhen. It has transported more than 600 million passengers and more than 17 million tons of goods. In terms of passenger transport, Shenzhen Airport witnessed five major increases in passenger throughput. In 2003, it had an annual passenger throughput of over 10 million passengers for the first time, ranking among the world’s Top 100 airports. In 2007, it had over 20 million, becoming one of the busiest airports in the world. Then its annual passenger throughput exceeded 30 million in 2013, 40 million in 2016, and 50 million in 2019 (52.93 million), ranking the 26th in the world and the second among the world’s top 30 airports in terms of growth rate. In 2020, its annual passenger throughput reached 37.916 million, historically ranking among the top five in the world. With regard to freight transport, in March 2011, Shenzhen Airport was awarded the “Best Cargo Airport of the Year” by Air Cargo News, the world’s authoritative cargo magazine. In 2015, Shenzhen Airport cargo and mail throughput broke through one million tons for the first time, ranking among the million-ton cargo and mail airports. In 2019, its cargo throughput reached 1.28 million tons, ranking 23rd in the world, and the third among the top 30 airports in the world in terms of growth rate. In 2020, its cargo and mail throughput hit 1.399 million tons, historically ranking among the top 20 in the world, with a year-on-year growth of 9%, topping the million-ton airports nationwide.
Shenzhen Airport has been practicing the concept of “people-centered” and improving service quality. More than 300 brand stores in the terminal took the lead in fully realizing “the same quality and price in the same city”, widely praised by passengers. It enhances care for special passengers by launching the whole-process service, and building flagship nursery rooms. It is the first in the industry to launch “door-to-door luggage delivery”, “one-click deposit” and other services. Shenzhen Airport has won the Skytrax “Five-star Airport” certification, twice won the “World’s Best Airport” of the Airports Council International, and won “CAPSE Best Airport” for six consecutive years. It has won the Guangdong Provincial Government Quality Award and the Shenzhen Mayor’s Quality Award, and was the only enterprise that has been awarded the AAA level service demonstration of national market quality credit in airport industry. In 2021, it topped the world for the first time in terms of passenger satisfaction.
Shenzhen Airport takes the lead in comprehensively and systematically promoting the digital transformation and building a digital, intelligent and networked smart airport under the guidance of documents such as the Action Plan for the Construction of Safe, Green, Intelligent, and Cultural Airports (Four-type Airports). Shenzhen Airport built the world’s very first “smart airport” exhibition hall, and realized “face recognition across the airport”. The smart airport construction was selected into the first batch of “Four-type Airports” demonstration projects of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Its intelligent allocation of stands is promoted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). CAAC particularly shared Shenzhen Airport’s experience in smart airport construction. The project of “Building the Best Digital Experience Airport” won the “National Quality Benchmark”.
Shenzhen Airport seizes the major historical opportunity of “dual-area engine” in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the pilot demonstration area, focuses on the five strategies of “passenger, cargo, city, people and intelligence” and the construction of “Four-type Airports”, takes root in the pioneer and demonstration, comprehensively modernizes large-scale airport governance capacity, and promotes high-quality development. Shenzhen Airport endeavors to develop into a high-quality and innovative international aviation hub, a high-level airport based national logistics hub, a hub of the world-class airport cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and an international comprehensive transportation hub integrating “sea, land, air, high-speed rail, intercity rail and subway” transport in the Greater Bay Area.
