Wuhan Tianhe International Airport

Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is an airport serving Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It was opened on 15 April 1995, replacing the old Hankou Wangjiadun Airport and Nanhu Airport as the major airport of Wuhan. The airport is located in Wuhan’s suburban Huangpi District, around 26 km  to the north of Wuhan city center.

It is the busiest airport in central China as it is geographically located in the centre of China’s airline route network. The airport is a focus city for Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines. The airport has flights to international destinations such as New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rome, Istanbul, Dubai, Sydney, Bali, Bangkok, Moscow, Osaka, Seoul, and Singapore. The name Tianhe (天河) can be literally translated as “Sky River”; Tianhe is also one of the names for the Milky Way in ancient Chinese.

Since 2019, passengers from 53 countries such as the EU countries, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the U.S., when transiting to a third country, can enter China from this airport without a Chinese visa for up to 144 hours.

On 23 January 2020, the airport was closed due to the 2020 Hubei lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the first outbreak happened in Wuhan. The airport reopened on 8 April 2020 following a large-scale disinfection.