How many airports does China have: a ten-year leap from an infrastructure madman to an aviation power
Introduction: The power of nations behind the numbers
In the past ten days, China's infrastructure achievements have once again become the focus of heated discussions on social media. The latest data in June 2024 shows that the number of civil aviation airports in China has quietly exceeded 256, a number that has increased by nearly 50% compared with ten years ago. This article will use structured data analysis to reveal the trajectory and strategic layout of China's airport network expansion in the past ten years.

1. Core data perspective: Panorama of China’s airport network
| Indicator category | 2014 data | 2024 data | growth rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil transport airport | 202 seats | 256 seats | 26.7% |
| annual passenger throughput | 830 million passengers | 1.26 billion passengers | 51.8% |
| international navigation city | 104 | 187 | 79.8% |
| Proportion of airports in central and western China | 41% | 58% | 17 percentage points |
2. Acceleration of infrastructure construction: a ten-year milestone event
1.Beijing Daxing Airport in 2019Put into operation, setting a record for the world's largest single terminal building
2. Tibet Shannan Longzi Airport will be opened to traffic in 2022, realizingAirport County Passbreakthrough
3. Xinjiang Ruoqiang Loulan Airport will be opened in 2023 to fill the final gap in the Silk Road
4. Hainan Free Trade Port will build a new Sanya Second Airport in 2024, with a designed capacity of 80 million passengers.
3. Spatial Reconstruction: Airport Network Density Analysis
| area | Number of airports | Density per 10,000 square kilometers |
|---|---|---|
| eastern region | 98 seats | 2.4 seats |
| central region | 67 seats | 1.2 seats |
| western region | 91 seats | 0.7 seats |
4. Decoding hot words: the three topics that netizens are most concerned about
1."1.5 hour flight circle": The competitive relationship between high-speed rail and aviation has triggered heated discussions
2."Drone Delivery Hub": Shenzhen Meituan Experimental Airport has an average of 300 takeoffs and landings per day.
3."Zero Carbon Airport": Chengdu Tianfu Airport’s photovoltaic project reduces annual emissions by 21,000 tons, attracting attention
5. Future Outlook: Aviation Blueprint in the 14th Five-Year Plan
According to the latest plan of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, China will complete theMore than 270 seatsTransport airports, forming three world-class airport clusters. Of particular concern are:
- The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plans to add 4 new vertical take-off and landing airports
- 11 general aviation complexes will be built in the Yangtze River Economic Belt
- The route network coverage of the ten ASEAN countries will be increased to 100%
Conclusion: National competitiveness on the runway
Extending from the number 256, China’s airport network is undergoing a strategic transformation from scale expansion to quality improvement. The birth of each new airport not only rewrites regional economic geography, but also becomes a unique perspective for observing Chinese modernization. When we enter "how many airports in China" into the search engine, what we get is not only a numerical answer, but also a codebook for understanding China's development.
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