Urumqi International Airport, opened in 1973, is a passage for China to Central and West Asia, Europe and Africa. It is located 16 kilometers from the city proper in the northwestern suburbs.

Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is the economic, political and cultural center of Xinjiang and is being built into an international commercial and trading hub for western China.

The Urumqi Airport was originally set up in 1935. To meet the needs of China's economic development, in 1994 the central government approved an investment of 2.0 billion yuan (US$241.7 million) to expand it into an international airport. The old runway has been renovated and can accommodate planes such as the Boeing 747-300 and MD-11. Planned expansion calls for a new 3,600-meter-long runway to upgrade the flight area to 4E.

The west parking area covers 56,715 square meters, and the east area 51,675 square meters, each of which can hold nine large and medium-size planes. The existing 47-meter-high aviation management building, with an area of 5,653 square meters, is fully equipped. The new aviation building will have an area of 47,800 square meters, five times the area of the existing terminal.

Xinjiang Airline now possesses 21 different kinds of airplanes, including large civil planes such as the Boeing 737-300 and Boeing 757. It now handles more than 4,300 tons of cargo. Its fleet of passenger planes total 3,397 seats, making both domestic and international flights. At present, Xinjiang Airline operates 61 routes, forming an air network that connects Urumqi with 12 prefectures of Xinjiang as well as 49 large cities across the country. Its seven international air routes are: Urumqi-Sharjah-Istanbul (Turkey), Urumqi-Almaty (Kazakhstan), Urumqi-Bishkek (Kirgizstan), Urumqi-Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Urumqi-Novosibirsk and Urumqi-Yekainburg-Moscow (Russia), and Urumqi-Islamabad (Pakistan). It also handles charter flights to Hong Kong.

Xinjiang civil aviation has seen tremendous growth in both passenger and cargo transport in the past 10 years. The number of passengers grew from 565,500 in 1990 to 1.7 million in 2002, while the cargo transport jumped from 8,000 tons to 35,000 tons.

The development of Xinjiang aviation and its airports is a vital part of China's international economic and technological cooperation, as well as of economic and cultural exchanges between Xinjiang and the rest of China areas and the region's own economic and social development.

(China.org.cn December 15, 2004)