Chongqing Airport Guide: Four Runways in the Mountain City
Chongqing Airport serves 50 million passengers a year from four runways and a Zaha Hadid designed satellite. Terminals, routes, access and spotting.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport serves the sprawling municipality of Chongqing in southwest China, about 12 miles (19 km) north of the city centre in the Liangjiang New Area. It handled roughly 50.1 million passengers in 2025, making it the ninth busiest airport in mainland China. Chongqing Airport is unusual among Chinese hubs in having four runways, the latest of which opened at the end of 2024. Its growth tracks the rise of the city itself, now one of the largest urban areas on earth.
Chongqing Airport at a Glance
The IATA code is CKG and the ICAO code is ZUCK. The field sits at 416 metres (1,365 feet) above sea level on a plateau north of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, which is a rare patch of flat ground in a city built on hills. Four runways, two active terminal complexes and a satellite building make up the passenger estate. Chongqing Airport Group operates the field for the municipal government.
Traffic in 2025 included close to 336,000 aircraft movements and around 548,000 tonnes of cargo alongside the 50 million passengers. China Southern, Sichuan Airlines, China Express, West Air, Chongqing Airlines and Hainan Airlines all run hubs here. Air China, Shandong Airlines, Tianjin Airlines and XiamenAir treat the city as a focus point. Current terminal allocations and transport details are published on the airport’s official website.
How Chongqing’s Airport Came to Be
Civil aviation in Chongqing dates to the 1920s, and the city’s wartime role as China’s capital made air links vital. Baishiyi Airport, completed in 1938, carried commercial flights for half a century. By the 1980s it was cramped and shared with the military, so the government built a new civil field at Jiangbei. It opened on 22 January 1990 and Baishiyi reverted to purely military use.
The original terminal, later known as Terminal 1, served both domestic and international flights until August 2017. Terminal 2 arrived in the 2000s and was later split into 2A and 2B as traffic surged. The second runway was lengthened from 3,200 metres to 3,600 metres to handle the Boeing 747.
The decisive step was Terminal 3A, which opened in August 2017 with 66 gates and took over all international flying. Terminal 1 closed the same day. Phase V, the current programme, delivered the fourth runway in late 2024 and the Terminal 3B satellite in April 2025. Chongqing Airport now has the infrastructure to compete for the title of western China’s busiest airport.
Runways at Chongqing Airport
Four runways run broadly north to south in two closely spaced pairs. Runway 03L/21R is the longest at 3,800 metres (12,467 feet) and 60 metres wide, on concrete. Runway 02R/20L, the second runway, was extended to 3,600 metres (11,811 feet) and is 45 metres wide. Runway 03R/21L measures 3,400 metres (11,154 feet) by 45 metres, and the original runway, 02L/20R, is 3,200 metres (10,499 feet) by 45 metres.
All four runways are parallel, so the mixture of 02 and 03 numbers is simply a way to give each runway a distinct identifier. The two eastern runways serve the Terminal 3 complex, and the western pair serve Terminal 2. The direction of operations follows the wind, and Chongqing’s humid, often foggy climate brings frequent spells of low visibility.
The most serious recent incident came on 12 May 2022. Tibet Airlines Flight 9833, an Airbus A319, rejected takeoff at high speed, left the runway and caught fire. All 113 passengers and nine crew evacuated, with 36 minor injuries. The quick escape became a textbook example of cabin crew training.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 2, split into halls 2A and 2B with 30 gates, handles domestic flying for a cluster of carriers. Sichuan Airlines, West Air, China Express and Spring Airlines have historically used this older complex, which sits on the west side of the field. It is functional rather than glamorous, but it offers short walks to the gates.
Terminal 3A is the flagship of Chongqing Airport. Its 66 gates host every international service plus the domestic operations of China Southern, Air China, Hainan Airlines and most other mainline carriers. The building connects by an underground automated people mover to Terminal 3B, the satellite designed by Zaha Hadid Architects with the China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute. T3B opened in April 2025 and handles domestic flights only.
International airlines include Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, Asiana and AirAsia X. XiamenAir and China Eastern fly the SkyTeam flag, with Star Alliance represented by Air China and its partners. Lounges in T3A are plentiful but ordinary.
Routes and Destinations
Domestic trunk routes to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou dominate, each with dozens of daily departures. Chengdu is too close for meaningful air service, so the Sichuan capital is reached by high speed rail. Regional carriers such as China Express and West Air connect Chongqing with dozens of smaller cities across the southwest, many served by Bombardier CRJ-900 and Comac ARJ21 regional jets.
International reach has expanded quickly. Air China flies to Tokyo Narita, Seoul Incheon and Dubai. Hainan Airlines operates to Paris, Rome, Milan, Brussels and Seattle. Tianjin Airlines links Chongqing Airport with London Heathrow and Sydney. Southeast Asian leisure routes to Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur fill the summer schedule and the Spring Festival peak.
Cargo is significant. The city’s electronics industry, which produces a large share of the world’s laptops, ships by air, and freighters from SF Airlines and international carriers use the long runways nightly.
Getting to and from Chongqing Airport
Chongqing Rail Transit Line 10 serves both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, and Line 3 also stops at Terminal 2. Line 3 takes about 50 minutes to reach Lianglukou in the city centre, and fares are a few yuan, which makes it the cheapest sensible option. An underground mainline station beneath Terminal 3A opened on 30 December 2022, one stop from Chongqing North railway station on the intercity network.
Airport Express buses K01 to K07 run to Jiefangbei, the main railway stations and other districts. The 14 mile (23 km) airport freeway reaches the centre in around 30 minutes in good traffic, though the city’s famously tangled roads can double that. Taxis to Jiefangbei cost around CNY 60 to 80 (roughly £7 to £9). Car parks serve both terminal complexes, and part of the international car park has doubled as a drive in cinema since March 2022.
Spotting and Photography
Chongqing Airport is a tough but rewarding place to spot. The best views come from inside Terminal 3A, whose vast glass walls overlook the eastern runways and the international stands. Outside, elevated roads near the Terminal 3 approach offer glimpses of taxiing aircraft.
Approach photography is possible from open ground north of the field when southerly operations bring arrivals in from the north. Haze is the enemy. Chongqing is one of China’s foggiest cities, so clear winter mornings after a cold front give the best chance of sharp images. Behave discreetly, keep well back from fences and comply at once with any police request. The payoff is a parade of Chinese carriers rarely seen in Europe.
What Comes Next
Phase V has given Chongqing Airport runway and terminal capacity well beyond current demand. The next tasks are filling T3B, adding remote stands and expanding cargo facilities for the electronics trade. The municipality has also floated a second airport to the west of the city for the 2030s, though that remains at planning stage.
Competition with Chengdu Tianfu, which opened in 2021 with similar ambitions, will shape route development. Chongqing Airport has the advantage of a larger home population and a stronger freight base. Expect more European and North American routes as Chinese carriers rebuild their long haul networks. Our Airports of the World map shows how it ranks against its neighbours.
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