Boasting a capacity to handle approximately 38 million passengers per annum, the new Kunming Changshui International has been designed by global design practice Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), in close association with Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and Research.
The new airport connects Southwest China to Southeast and South Asia. It incorporated two parallel runways, a 423,500 square metre terminal building and a 90,000 square metre car park. The airport boasts of the capacity to handle larger aircraft such as the Airbus A330 and can handle 65 million passengers per annum in future.
Arup, in addition to engineering the schematic design and structural elements, has also carried out a major fire engineering programme at the airport. The estimated capital outlay of the project is CNY23 billion ($3.6 billion). The new airport replaces the old Kunming Wujiaba airport nearby, which will be razed out in future.
