Starting December 26, Jiaxing Nanhu Airport—one of Zhejiang Province’s ten landmark infrastructure projects—will officially commence operations. It will become the nearest newly built civil airport to Shanghai outside of Pudong and Hongqiao, and the second-closest airport to Suzhou.
In terms of passenger services, Jiaxing Nanhu Airport will initially launch routes to Chengdu, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Changchun. Additional routes to Kunming, Harbin, Chongqing, Xi’an and Haikou are scheduled to be introduced ahead of the 2026 Spring Festival, gradually building out its domestic network.
The airport covers a total site area of 7,781 mu (5.2 sq km) and has been constructed to ICAO 4E standards. Its 3,400-meter runway is capable of accommodating wide-body aircraft. The airport is planned with 56 aircraft stands, including 30 for wide-body aircraft. The 25,900-square-meter terminal, inspired by the azalea—the official flower of Jiaxing—reflects the characteristics of a professionally designed hub in terms of both hardware and layout.
From a functional perspective, Jiaxing Nanhu Airport is positioned to complement rather than compete directly with Shanghai’s airports, following a differentiated development strategy.
Notably, the airport is designated as “cargo-focused with passenger services as a supplement.” It is the first specialized air cargo hub in the Yangtze River Delta, with long-term plans targeting 1.23 million tonnes of cargo and mail throughput by 2035.
Supported by the planned Airport Avenue connection to the Shanghai–Suzhou–Huzhou high-speed railway, travel time from parts of Suzhou to Jiaxing Nanhu Airport is expected to be shorter than journeys to Hongqiao Airport, helping to fill an aviation service gap across the Shanghai–Jiangsu–Zhejiang border region.
