Inbound and outbound passenger visits growing at Guangzhou airport

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in the Guangdong provincial capital has handled more than 10 million inbound and outbound passenger visits this year as of the end of Tuesday.

The figure, which ranked second among airports in the country, was achieved 41 days earlier than the previous year, according to a statement released by the Baiyun Immigration Inspection Station on Wednesday.

With the ongoing "China Travel" boom and increasing external exchanges, the number of international flight routes in the airport has steadily grown since the beginning of the year, said the statement.

To meet the growing demand, the aviation hub has added or resumed 18 regular international passenger routes while adding two new international destinations this year, according to the statement.

Five new international airlines have come to base in the airport, which is now operating approximately 75 international passenger flight routes and 46 international cargo routes weekly, it said.

Baiyun Immigration Inspection Station has inspected more than 67,000 international passenger and cargo flight visits since the beginning of the year, indicating that Guangzhou has seen a significant rise in international tourist flows.

The station has inspected more than 3.82 million foreign passengers since the start of the year, a year-on-year increase of 37.4 percent, accounting for 38.2 percent of the total number of inbound and outbound passengers, up year-on-year 4.4 percent.

It ranked first among large airports in China in terms of proportion, the statement said.

Among them, the number of foreign tourists who entered the country with visa-free inspection exceeded 760,000, a year-on-year increase of 123.5 percent, representing 46.7 percent of the total number of inbound foreign tourists.

About 50,000 foreign tourists have enjoyed the convenience of visa-free transit policies at the airport, a year-on-year increase of 25.6 percent, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, the station has ensured more than 500,000 international transit passengers to enjoy 24-hour direct transit without immigration clearance, facilitating "smooth border passage" in the airport, enhancing Guangzhou’s new advantages of high-level opening up, and demonstrating the vitality of international exchanges in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, it added.