Chengdu Tianfu International Airport starts operation

After five years of construction, Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Southwest China's Sichuan province was put into operation on Sunday morning, making Chengdu the third city in China with two international hub airports, after Shanghai and Beijing.

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is the largest civil transport airport planned and constructed during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20).

Its first-phase project witnessed the construction of three runways and two terminals with a total area of 710,000 square meters, which can meet the annual throughput of 60 million people.

According to Wu Ding, a leading official in charge of the airport's construction, over 30 new technologies have been applied to make it reach advanced world level.

With a total length of 4,000 meters and a width of 75 meters, one of its runways is the highest level 4F runway in the international aviation industry, where large civil aircraft like an Airbus A380 can take off and land.

On Sunday, two flights will land at the airport and six will take off and head for Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong province.

The first plane, which took off from the airport at 11:25 am, was from Sichuan Airlines.

With 262 passengers, the plane headed for Beijing Capital International Airport had many cartoon pandas on its fuselage, reminding passengers of the animal's habitat.

More than 80 percent of China's pandas are in Sichuan.