Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport

Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport is an international airport serving Hangzhou, a major city in the Yangtze River Delta region and the capital of East China’s Zhejiang province. The airport is located on the southern shore of Qiantang River in Xiaoshan District and is 27 km east of downtown Hangzhou. Architecture firm Aedas designed Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport.

The airport has service to destinations throughout China. International destinations are mainly in the east and southeast Asia, and points of Africa, Europe, and South Asia. The airport also serves as a focus city for Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

In 2017, Hangzhou airport handled 35,570,411 passengers, which ranked tenth in terms of passenger traffic in China. Additionally, the airport ranked sixth busiest in terms of cargo with 589,461.6 tonnes and was the country's ninth busiest airport by traffic movements at 271,066.

On 8 September 2022, Terminal 4 of Hangzhou airport opened.

Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport has four terminals, Terminal 1,2,3 and Terminal 4. The smaller Terminal 2 serves all international/regional flights while the larger Terminal 1 and 3 solely handles domestic traffic. A newly built Terminal 4 handles both international/regional flights and selected domestic flights. The airport is located just outside the city in the Xiaoshan District with direct bus service and metro linking the airport with Downtown Hangzhou. A new elevated airport expressway is built on top of the existing highway between the airport and downtown Hangzhou.

History
The airport was planned to be constructed in three phases. The first phase of construction started in July 1997, and was completed and opened for traffic on 30 December 2000. It replaced the old Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport, which was a dual-use civil and military airfield. In March 2004, the airport officially became an international airport after immigration and customs facilities were built and put into service. A second runway of 3600 m is also under construction. Terminal extensions are also under construction as of 2012.

The airport was a hub of CNAC Zhejiang. After the airlines' merger with Air China, the latter inherited the Hangzhou hub.

KLM launched the first intercontinental air route out of Hangzhou, to Amsterdam, on 8 May 2010.

On the evening of 9 July 2010, the airport was shut down for an hour when an unidentified flying object was detected. Flights were diverted to the nearby airports in Ningbo, Zhejiang and Wuxi, Jiangsu. Eighteen flights were affected. Though normal operations resumed four hours later, the incident captured the attention of the Chinese media and sparked a firestorm of speculation on the UFO's identity.

Facilities
Phase One of the airport occupies 7260 acre of land. It has a capacity of eight million passengers and 110,000 tons of cargo a year, and can handle aircraft as large as the Boeing 747-400. It has one runway which is 3600 m long and 45 m wide. The passenger terminal can handle 3,600 passengers an hour and is 100000 m2 in size (including an underground parking of 22000 m2). The departure level has 36 ticket counters, including 12 in the international side of the terminal. There are 2,900 seats in the departure lounge. The immigration and customs area occupies 9500 m2 of terminal space.

The apron occupies 340,000 square metres of land, and there are 12 jetways and 18 departure gates.

Maintenance facilities are certified to perform B-Check on all types of aircraft and C-Check on Boeing 737 and Boeing 757 aircraft.

Phase Two of the airport expansion project began construction on 8 November 2007. It included an International Terminal, a second Domestic Terminal, and a new runway. The International Terminal was completed on 3 June 2010. The terminal has 8 air bridgegates, with one gate capable of handling the Airbus A380. All international flights, including flights to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan depart from this terminal. The original terminal handles exclusively domestic flights. All other constructions were completed and operations began on 30 December 2012.

Phase III of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport passed the acceptance inspection in March 2022, marking an important supporting project for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou. Upon the completion of Phase III, Hangzhou Airport will become the second-largest aviation hub in East China. On September 8, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport's T4 terminal conducted trial operations; on September 10, international flights commenced trial operations; in mid-September, the T4 terminal and transportation center were officially put into operation, with a designed annual passenger throughput of 50 million. Starting from September 16, the parking lot, online car pickup area, T4 taxi pickup area, and B2 level subway entrance of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport's transportation center conducted synchronized trial operations. On September 22, the Phase III project of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, an important supporting project for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, was officially put into operation.

The newly built T4 terminal has a total floor area of 720,000 square meters and is designed to handle 50 million passengers annually. It includes two underground levels and five above-ground levels. It is a green building with a layout different from other terminals at Hangzhou Airport, featuring a centralized configuration in its plan layout. The interior design draws inspiration from the typical imagery of lotus leaves reaching to the sky and lotus flowers emerging from water in West Lake. This imagery is integrated with architectural structural design, optimization of space lighting, ventilation, and other performance aspects, creating lotus-shaped skylights and a central lotus valley in the main building of the terminal.

The new runway is 3400 meters long and 60 meters wide, which is capable of handling the Airbus A380. The new domestic terminal (T3) has 90 Check-in desks and 21 Self Check-in counters. It also adds 26 security lanes and 31 aerobridge gates. All public spaces of the terminal have free WIFI services. With the addition of the new passenger terminal, the airport now has a total terminal floor area of 370000 m2 and will enable the airport to handle 8,520 passengers at peak hour and 32.5 million passengers annually.

Loong Airlines has its headquarters in the Loong Air Office Building on the airport property.

Airport bus
There are airport bus services linking the airport to points throughout Zhejiang and cities in Jiangsu.

Bus services to/from downtown Hangzhou originate/terminate at the Ticketing Office on Tiyuchang Road with intermediate stops in between.

Rail
Xiaoshan International Airport station of the Hangzhou Metro allows passengers to transfer to Line 1, Line 7 and Line 19 which connect the airport with the city downtown.

Highway
The Airport is accessed by Airport Road, which connects to the Airport Expressway and is linked to downtown Hangzhou by the Xixing Bridge. The Airport Expressway also has an exit at North Shixin Road, which is linked to downtown Xiaoshan. The G92 Hangzhou Bay Ring Expressway has an exit at the airport.

Accidents and incidents

 * On 8 January 2022, Tupolev Tu-204-200 RA-64032 of Aviastar-TU was destroyed by fire at the airport.