Analysis of Chengdu Tianfu

Introduction

The Chengdu Tianfu international airport in Chengdu was launched in June 2021. It is the second international aviation hub in the Sichuan province in south-west China. With the opening of the new airport, Chengdu became the third Chinese city to have two international airports. Located 50 kilometers from downtown Chengdu. After its opening Chengdu became the third largest Chinese city to operate a two-airport system after Beijing and Shanghai.

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport Design and Features

The terminal buildings are designed in a shape that resembles the mythical sunbird which is the logo for Chengdu. Chengdu features two terminals and three runways spanning 710,000 m2. Terminal 1(T1) mainly hosts international flights, whereas T2 handles domestic flights. The two terminals are fitted with glass windows to maximize amount of sunlight inside. The airport is a three-star green building, designed as environmental-friendly, low-carbon and sustainable structure to meet the latest green standards and achieve energy savings

Ground Transportation in Chengdu Tianfu Airport

The terminals of the airport are connected to the remote parking lots via a personal rapid transit (PRT) system provided by PRT solutions specialist Ultra Global. The 3km-long PRT smart car system is the second airport PRT in the world. A comprehensive ground transportation center (GTC) connecting terminals T1 and T2 was built to connect the passengers to high-speed rail, local railway, subway, taxi, and bus services. The intermodal GTC connects the buildings to four high-speed railway lines and two metro lines.

The two terminals are also connected by Alstom’s APM 300 automated people mover (APM) system, making it more convenient for passengers to commute between them. Commissioned in June 2021, the driverless Innovia APM vehicles move passengers via a dual-lane transit system. Each vehicle operates on a dedicated guideway underground, without affecting surrounding road or runway traffic.

Technologies Used at Chengdu Tianfu Airport

The wall-to-wall indoor gigabit technology helped increase the single-user network rate by 26% to 1.25Gbps(Wang, 2018).Chinese multi-national technology company Huawei, in partnership with China Mobile Chengdu, installed 5G distributed massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technology at the Chengdu Tianfu airport making it the first 5G Chinese airport to be installed with gigabit network technology.

Contractors Involved in The Airport Development

The airport was designed and built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC). France-based consulting and engineering firm ADP Ingénierie along with China Southwest Architectural Design & research institute (cswadi) was selected as the winner of an international design competition for the airport in 2015. the team was contracted to provide the master plan and architecture for the first phase of the airport development.

Conclusion .

Finally, the construction of the Chengdu Tianfu airport has facilitated eased and expanded air transport in China internationally as well as locally. The connection of the airport to the remote parking lot via a rapid transit (PTR) system provided by the PTR Solution specialist Ultra Global is one of coolest things the airport has provided. The expansion of the passenger handling capacity from 40 million to 90 million per annum has provided access to more opportunities in the country.

References.

Wang, T. (2018, December). Research on the Construction of National Central City Comprehensive Transportation Hub—Taking Chengdu City as an Example. In 2018 3rd International Conference on Education, E-learning and Management Technology (EEMT 2018) (pp. 398-402). Atlantis Press. Liu, W., ZHU, H., & WANG, Q. The Anticipation Effect of New Airport Scheme: Evidence from Land Markets in China. Available at SSRN 4345670.