Yibin Wuliangye Airport

"Yibin Airport" redirects here. For the old Yibin airport, see Yibin Caiba Airport.

Yibin Wuliangye Airport (IATA: YBP, ICAO: ZUYB) is a dual-use public and military airport serving the city of Yibin in southern Sichuan province, China. Opened in December 2019, it replaced the older Yibin Caiba Airport. The airport is named after Wuliangye, a locally made liquor that is one of the most famous baijiu brands in China.^[1]

Yibin Wuliangye Airport 宜宾五粮液机场
IATA: YBP ICAO: ZUYB
Summary
Airport type	Public/military
Serves	Yibin, Sichuan, China
Location	Zongchang, Cuiping District
Opened	5 December 2019
Elevation AMSL	420 m / 1,378 ft
Coordinates	28.858°N 104.525°E / 28.858; 104.525
Map
YBP Location of airport in Sichuan
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 11/29 2,600 8,530 Concrete

Yibin Wuliangye Airport
Simplified Chinese	宜宾五粮液机场
Traditional Chinese	宜賓五糧液機場
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yibīn Wǔliángyè Jīchǎng

Overview

The airport received approval from the State Council of China in May 2012. It occupies an area of 4,500 mu (300 ha) in Zongchang Town (宗场), Cuiping District, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) northwest of the city center.^[2] Construction began in October 2016 with a total investment of 2.927 billion yuan, and the airport opened on 5 December 2019.^[3] It replaced the older Yibin Caiba Airport.^[2] The passenger movements of the airport in 2023 were 2,050,861, making it the 73th busiest airport in China.^[4]

Facilities

The airport has a runway that is 2,600 metres (8,500 ft) long and 45 metres (148 ft) wide (class 4C), a 24,000-square-metre (260,000 sq ft) terminal building, and 13 aircraft parking aprons. It is projected to handle 2.5 million passengers annually by 2024.^[3]

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Air China	Beijing–Capital
Air Travel	Wuxi
Beijing Airlines	Beijing–Daxing[5]
Chengdu Airlines	Xichang[6]
China Eastern Airlines	Kunming, Nanjing,[7] Qingdao,[7] Shanghai–Pudong, Wuhan[8]
China Southern Airlines	Guangzhou[9]
Colorful Guizhou Airlines	Fuzhou,[7] Haikou, Jinan, Ningbo, Shijiazhuang,[10] Taiyuan, Tianjin, Zhengzhou,[7] Zhuhai[11]
Okay Airways	Wuhan[12]
Shenzhen Airlines	Hefei, Quanzhou,[13] Shenzhen, Wenzhou
Sichuan Airlines	Beijing–Capital,[7] Changsha,[14] Guangzhou,[15] Hangzhou, Jieyang,[16] Lijiang, Sanya, Ürümqi,[16] Xi'an, Xishuangbanna,[17] Yancheng[14]
Tibet Airlines	Changzhou,[18] Dali,[19] Hangzhou, Lhasa, Xuzhou[19]

Naming

The airport is named after Wuliangye, a famous liquor made in Yibin. This choice of name caused controversy in China. The name has been a target of ridicule by the public^[20] and is considered illegal by some legal experts.^[1] Although Zunyi Maotai Airport, an airport in Guizhou Province, is also named after a famous liquor brand, Maotai, it has not attracted as much criticism as Maotai itself is named after a town.^[20] Responding to the controversy, the Wuliangye Company has declared that it has not paid to have the airport named after its brand.^[21]

See also

• List of airports in China
• List of the busiest airports in China
• Huawei station, metro station which also attracted attention for being named after a company