Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, originally built in the 1930s, is the major airport of Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The new airport opened on August 5, 2004, replacing the 72-year-old previous, identically named Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (now closed). The new airport is 28 kilometers from downtown Guangzhou. “Baiyun” means “white clouds” in Chinese, and refers to Mount Baiyun near the airport.

Both airport codes were inherited from the former Baiyun Airport, and the IATA code (CAN) is derived from Guangzhou’s historical romanization Canton. Baiyun Airport serves as a hub for China Southern Airlines, FedEx Express, 9 Air, Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines.

In 2017, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was China’s third-busiest and world’s 13th-busiest airport by passenger traffic, with 65,806,977 passengers handled. As for cargo traffic, the airport was China’s third-busiest and the 19th-busiest worldwide. Baiyun airport was also the third-busiest airport in China in terms of aircraft movements.