Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is Certified as a 5-Star Regional Airport
By Peter Miller, Skytrax – London, UK
Chengdu Tianfu International Airport has been Certified as a 5-Star Regional Airport by the international air transport rating agency Skytrax, becoming the fourth airport in China to achieve this highest quality rating.
The airport has an initial passenger handling capacity of 40 million a year, which will increase to 90 million passengers with the addition of new terminals and runways in planned future development.
With a floor area of 710,000m², the airport features two terminals and three runways. The terminals are designed in a shape that resembles the mythical sunbird. The airport’s rating is based on the operating domestic Terminal 2, with Terminal 1 due to operate international flights
Edward Plaisted of Skytrax said: “This is a great achievement for Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, becoming just the fourth airport in China to achieve this highest 5-Star Airport Rating. On the first anniversary of its operation, we congratulate Chengdu Tianfu International Airport for achieving this top ranking. The airport provides an excellent range of passenger facilities with a pleasant ambience, and the terminal design is customer friendly, whilst being large a great deal of emphasis was placed on minimising walking distances. Chengdu Tianfu International Airport positively adopted the Skytrax 5-star airport standards and carried out many measures to improve passenger service quality. Terminal signage has been improved to an excellent standard, and the terminals offer some very pleasant courtyard gardens that customers can use when airside. We have applied the rating based on Terminal 2, and we look forward to inspecting and evaluating Terminal 1 later this year.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Skytrax team in London had to manage all aspects of the 18-month airport audit processes remotely, working directly with Sichuan Province Airport Group, including many live airport inspections, remote meetings and information exchanges. A number of facility upgrades were made by the airport company during the project period to meet the 5-Star Airport requirements.
Whilst designed to be the main international airport for Chengdu, due to COVID-19 the airport has been operating domestic flights throughout 2021, and due to this Skytrax have initially certified the airport as a 5-Star Regional Airport.
The new Chengdu Tianfu International Airport was designed by a consortium made up of the China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute, China Airport Construction Group Corporation and French architectural firm ADP Ingenierie.
Airside, the terminals provide a good range of shopping and food and beverage facilities, and include courtyard gardens where departing passengers can relax. The airport upgraded facilities such as wayfinding signage, seat power charging and creating rest areas as part of their mission to achieve the 5-Star Airport rating.
The airport includes a lot of the latest technology, including facial recognition software, self-check-in kiosks, smart security systems, self-boarding gates and AI robot concierges. Terminal 1 has an area of 126,000 m2 , with Terminal 2 being 332,200 m2.
A metro line connects the airport with the city centre with a journey time up to 44 minutes, and a new metro line connecting Chengdu Tianfu International Airport to the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is expected to be completed in 2023.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airport currently does not operate international flights, but the planning is for Chengdu Tianfu International Airport to take over most international routes from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, when normal operations resume.
» Chengdu Tianfu International Airport Rating
THE 5-STAR AIRPORT RATING
The 5-Star Airport Rating is our most prestigious and unique mark of Quality Achievement and a global benchmark of Airport Excellence, which is awarded following detailed audit analysis and assessment of each airport’s product and front-line service standards. The World Airport Star Rating was introduced by Skytrax in 1999 and is a premier evaluation system grading airports on their quality standards.
The 5-Star Airport rating recognises those airports that are providing exceptional standards of facilities and staff service to customers across all front-line areas of the airport environment. To achieve the top 5-Star Airport rating, the staff service or product standards must be either meeting or setting global best practice for the item under evaluation.
ABOUT CHENGDU TIANFU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is a 4F international airport, which is positioned as the main hub airport of Chengdu International Aviation Hub and the international hub under the “Belt and Road” Initiative. It will serve as a gateway to Europe, the Middle East and all parts of Asia. Chengdu Tianfu International has three runways with two operational passenger terminals covering 710,000 square meters,241 aircraft stands, having domestic cargo terminals and international cargo terminal. It can meet passenger throughput of 60 million and cargo throughput 1.3 million tons.
ABOUT SKYTRAX
Skytrax, the International air transport rating organisation, was established in 1989 and is based in London, United Kingdom. The World Airport Rating programme is a leading international Rating system operating since 1999, which classifies airports across the globe by the quality of product and staff service.
