Yushu Batang Airport

Yushu Batang Airport
玉树巴塘机场
Summary
Airport typePublic
LocationYushu, Qinghai, China
Elevation AMSL3,890 m (12,760 ft)
Coordinates32°50′21″N 97°02′20″E / 32.83917°N 97.03889°E / 32.83917; 97.03889
Map
YUS is located in Qinghai
YUS
YUS
Location of airport in Qinghai
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
10/28 3,800 12,467 Concrete
Statistics (2025 [1])
Passengers405,531
Aircraft movements4,100
Cargo (metric tons)1,095.3
Source:[2]
Yushu Batang Airport
Simplified Chinese玉树巴塘机场
Traditional Chinese玉樹巴塘機場
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYùshù Bātáng Jīchǎng

Yushu Batang Airport (IATA: YUS, ICAO: ZLYS) is an airport serving Yushu City in Qinghai Province, China. It is located 18 kilometers to the south of the city center, Gyêgu, at 3,890 meters above the sea level, which makes it the highest civilian airport in Qinghai Province,[2] and one of the highest in the world.

The construction of the airport started in 2007.[3] The first aircraft landed at the new airport on May 29, 2009, and the airport was officially opened on August 1, 2009.[2]

Yushu Batang Airport has a 3,800-meter-long runway, and can receive A319 aircraft. The passenger terminal is designed to serve up to 80,000 passengers per year.[2] According to the CAAC statistics, the airport served 7,484 passengers during 2009, the first (incomplete) year of its operation.[4]

The airport played an important role in the delivery of rescue personnel and relief supplies to the area affected by the 2010 Yushu earthquake. The facility was re-opened at noon on the day of the earthquake (Wednesday, April 14), and the first flight with personnel and supplies of the China International Earthquake Rescue Team landed there at 8 pm the same day.[5]

History

Located at an altitude of 3,900 meters in Batangtan, the Yushu Batang Airport has a tumultuous history of being built twice and abandoned twice.[6] In August 2006, the airport site was confirmed. In January 2007, the State Council and the Central Military Commission officially approved the construction of the Yushu Batang Airport.[7]

On May 16, 2007, a grand groundbreaking ceremony was held for Batang Airport in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, with a total investment of over 500 million yuan. The airport was designed as a 4C-class airport with a runway of 3,800 meters long and 45 meters wide, capable of handling aircraft such as the Airbus A319.[8][9] During this construction project, many elderly people opposed it, believing that it would affect the surrounding pastures.[6]

In 2008, the "Overall Plan for Qinghai Yushu Airport" was approved, with a near-term target capacity of 115,000 passengers by 2020 and a long-term target capacity of 280,000 passengers by 2040.[10]

In August 2008, the Yushu Airport runway project was completed, and it opened to traffic on August 1, 2009, with the first flight using an A319 aircraft.[8]

On April 14, 2010, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Yushu. At that time, due to road damage, Yushu Airport, which had only been in operation for eight months, became the only rescue route. From the day after the earthquake, an average of more than 30 rescue flights, a large number of rescue personnel and disaster relief supplies arrived in Yushu every day.[11]

Qinghai Airport Company started preliminary work on the airport expansion and renovation project in 2017. The project obtained the feasibility study approval on June 6, 2019, the preliminary design approval on August 14, and officially started construction on October 5 of that year.[12][13]

In early March 2022, the flight area project of the Yushu Batang Airport expansion and renovation project passed the completion acceptance.[14][15] After three years of construction and a total investment of 474 million yuan, the project was completed and put into operation on August 1, 2022, with 9 aircraft stands, 1 vertical connecting taxiway, and a 5,770-square-meter terminal building.[12] On May 23, 2024, the expansion and renovation project of Qinghai Yushu Airport successfully passed the overall industry acceptance.[16][17][18]

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
Beijing Capital Airlines Beijing–Daxing, Xining
China Eastern Airlines Chengdu–Tianfu, Xining
Tibet Airlines Chengdu–Shuangliu,[19] Lhasa,[19] Xi'an,[20] Xining

See also

References

  1. ↑ 中国民航局 (2026-02-26). "2025年全国民用运输机场生产统计公报". 中国民航局. Retrieved 2026-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Yushu Batang Airport officially opened on August 1, 2009". Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
  3. ↑ "First civil aviation airplane successfully landed in Yushu Airport in Qinghai". Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  4. ↑ 民航机场业务量 Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (Civil Airports Operations Volume), at the CAAC site [This is apparently an HTML file, not an Excel file, despite its extension].
  5. ↑ Airport vital lifeline to relief effort. By Xin Dingding (China Daily), 2010-04-15
  6. 1 2 "玉树重建一周年：在祖国的怀抱中--玉树人这一年_新闻中心_新浪网". news.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  7. ↑ "玉树民用机场正式开工建设". www.caac.gov.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  8. 1 2 "青海省玉树藏族自治州巴塘机场简介_新浪军事_新浪网". mil.news.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  9. ↑ "玉树民用机场正式开工建设". www.caac.gov.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  10. ↑ "青海玉树机场总体规划获批复-中国民航网". www.caacnews.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  11. ↑ "青海机场公司玉树抗震救灾十周年-中国民航网". www.caacnews.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  12. 1 2 "打造最美支线机场——青海玉树机场改扩建工程综述_涉藏动态_中国西藏网". www.tibet.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  13. ↑ ""银鹰"掠过巴塘草原记 玉树机场改扩建工程-中国民航网". www.caacnews.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  14. ↑ "青海海拔最高机场改扩建工程飞行区项目竣工验收_涉藏动态_中国西藏网". www.tibet.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  15. ↑ "青海海拔最高机场改扩建工程飞行区项目竣工验收-中新网". www.chinanews.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  16. ↑ "玉树机场改扩建工程通过行业总体验收-政务公开-青海省人民政府网". www.qinghai.gov.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  17. ↑ "西北局组织完成玉树机场改扩建工程总体行业验收". www.caac.gov.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  18. ↑ "青海玉树机场改扩建工程通过行业总体验收 青海新闻—中国新闻网". www.qh.chinanews.com.cn. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  19. 1 2 "最全冬航季航班时刻表→". Retrieved 25 December 2024.
  20. ↑ "‌【7月1日起，玉树机场新增西安-玉树航班，加密西宁-玉树航班】". Retrieved 6 July 2025.
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