Xi'an Xianyang International Airport

Xi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY) is the largest airport in northwestern China and the CAAC-designated trunk hub for the Guanzhong plain, Shaanxi, Gansu, and beyond to the inner Asian borderlands. Sited 41 km (25 mi) northwest of central Xi'an at 1,572 ft (479 m) elevation in the municipality of Xianyang, the airport handled 47.2M passengers in 2024, restoring its place among mainland China's top ten. It serves as the primary Shenzhen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, and China Eastern hub for the region, and as the principal Star Alliance feed to Air China's PEK long-haul complex. The airport operates three runways (05L/23R, 05R/23L, 05/23 west) following the 2021 commissioning of the third strip as part of the Phase III expansion. Phase III, completed progressively through 2025 with the opening of Terminal 5 in the second half of the year, lifts declared capacity to 83M passengers and 1M tonnes of cargo. Terminal 5 alone — at more than 700,000 sq m — is the largest single terminal ever constructed in inland China and features an integrated high-speed rail station providing direct connections to Xi'an North on the national HSR network. XIY's geographic centrality within China has given it a role as a natural hub for westbound international services: direct widebody routes operate to Helsinki, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, Istanbul, and Dubai, supporting Shaanxi's positioning as a historic terminus of the ancient Silk Road and a modern Belt and Road logistics node. The airport's T5 commissioning was scheduled to coincide with Xi'an's hosting of a major international expo in 2025, and the new terminal also integrates the city's air-rail cargo interchange with China Railway Express freight services.