Upper level departures and lower level arrivalsThe apron view at Fuzhou Changle International Airport
Fuzhou Changle International Airport (IATA:FOC,ICAO:ZSFZ) is aninternational airport servingFuzhou, the capital ofEast China’sFujian province. It was inaugurated on 23 June 1997 after being approved to start construction by thestate council in 1992. The current handling capacity is approximately 6.5 million people annually.
The airport is located near the shore of theTaiwan Strait in Zhanggang Subdistrict,Changle, about 50 km (31 mi) east of central Fuzhou. The airport is also a major hub for the namesakeFuzhou Airlines andXiamenAir.
In 2017, Fuzhou Airport handled 12,469,235 passengers and was the 29th busiest in China by total passenger traffic. In 2016, the airport was the23rd busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic and the28th busiest airport by traffic movements.[2]
Changle Airport was built to replace the oldFuzhou Yixu Airport (福州义序机场),[3] a dual-use military and civil airport located inCangshan District, and prepared for the base of the direct flights toTaiwan across the straits.[citation needed] The airport was designed byLiu Thai Ker at the direct request ofXi Jinping.[4] The government of Fujian province hoped that the new airport could reach the standard ofSingapore Changi Airport, but they soon realized it was too big, and shrank the scale of the airport. However, the scale of the airport was still much bigger than the norm that the central government approved. Changle Airport was opened in 1997. Due to the lack of passenger flow, the airport had a significant financial deficit in the early years of its operation. In 2003, the management of the airport was taken over by Xiamen International Airport Group, and became profitable from 2005.
Fuzhou Changle International Airport is located at 25°56´ north latitude and 119°39´ east longitude. It is surrounded by theEast China Sea on three sides. The surrounding area of the airport is flat, but it extends southwest and northeast, surrounded by mountains.
According to the newly released intercity railway construction plan for the west coast of Fujian Province, the Fuzhou-Changle Airport Intercity Railway (F1/3) will be directly connected to the airport, and will be passed by MetroLine 6 near the airport.[10]
Fuzhou Changle International Airport has a subtropical maritime climate, with the northeast monsoon prevailing in the winter half year and the southwest monsoon in the summer half year. There will be continuous rainy weather in spring. Due to typhoon and subtropical high pressure, there are often strong winds and heavy rains in summer. There will be continuously sunny weather in winter.
In addition to the southerly winds in the south of July, Changle Airport is dominated by the northerly winds in the other 11 months, and there are mountain hills in the west of the Changle Plain.[11]
Typical climate characteristics of Changle Airport are: (1), cloudy, low cloud base; (2) abundant rainfall, large number of rainy days; (3) fast wind speed, large number of windy days, and the annual average wind speed is 4.5 m/s (4) the airport has less thunderstorms, but the airport airspace has frequent thunderstorms (5) well marked sea-land breeze effect (6) humid air, the annual average relative humidity is 75%.[12][13]
In 2017, the total throughput of Changle Airport ranked 28 in China, carrying passengers up to 12,469,235 throughout the year.
In the latest airport punctuality rate ranking in October 2018, Changle Airport ranked 16, which is 83.19%, with an average delay of 23 minutes. Delays of more than 60 minutes are rare, only 2.54%.[70][71]
Aviation and weather are closely connected. Thunderstorms are currently recognized as one of the most important weather phenomena that seriously affect the safety of airport and efficiency of flights.[72] When flying in thunderstorms area, passengers and crew may encounter dangerous weather such as wind shear, bumps, hail, downburst, etc.
In recent years, Fuzhou Changle International Airport has experienced a rapid growth for flight delays and return flight due to thunderstorms. In 2016, the number of flights affected by thunderstorms at Changle Airport was 729, taking up 38.4% of the total number of flights affected by the weather. The annual average thunderstorm of Fuzhou Changle International Airport is 27.3d which is considerably frequent and has a greater impact on flight. Thunderstorms vary greatly from year to year, and thunderstorms may occur throughout the year. As the temperature rises, thunderstorms frequency begin to increase.
The main activity period of thunderstorms at Fuzhou Airport is from March to September. Thunderstorms appear most frequent in summer, with an average number of days of 13.5 days, accounting for 49.5 percent of the total number of thunderstorms in the year.
Compared to other months of the year, the thunderstorms in June showed the highest number, with an average of 5.1d. Most are dry thunderstorms and are not prone to rainfall.
Thunder mainly concentrated in the afternoon to the middle of the night, with the highest frequency occurring at 17:00.
Thunderstorms may occur in all directions of Fuzhou Airport, among them, west direction has highest frequency, followed by the northwest and southwest directions. This is because the eastern part of the airport is the ocean, the west is the mountainous area, and the convection over the mountains is stronger than the ocean.[12]
The average visibility in the first half of the year is less than 1000 meters. The number of days is significantly higher than that in the second half, accounting for 83% of the whole year. The visibility of the airport has obvious seasonal differences, showing the worst visibility in spring.[73]
^班车时间. Fujian Airport Express Transport Ltd. Retrieved22 November 2018.
^Zhang, Jinqian (February 2012).不同经济发展阶段下城市空间扩展对比研究 ———以福州和台北为例 [A Comparative Study of Urban Spatial Expansion under Different Economic Development Stages——Taking Fuzhou and Taipei as Examples].Journal of Natural Resources.27 (2).
^福建省海峡西岸城市群城际铁路建设规划（2015-2020）调整环评公众意见征询 [Public Consultation on the Inter-city Railway Construction of the Urban Agglomeration of the West Coast of Fujian Province (2015 - 2020)]. Archived fromthe original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved22 November 2018.
^Zhang, Wenkai (March 1996).福州盆地和长乐东部的城市扩展条件分析 [Analysis of Urban Expansion Conditions in Fuzhou Basin and East Changle].Tropical Geography.16 (1).
^abZhang, Zhichao (张智超) (2017).福州长乐国际机场雷暴特征分析 [Analysis of Thunderstorm Characteristics of Fuzhou Changle International Airport].Straits Science (in Chinese (China)).7: 86–88,96.
^Yang, Qinghua (杨清华). "Feature Analysis for Fog of Fuzhou Changle International Airport 1998-2010".Air Traffic.
^Qin, Chao (2012).福州长乐国际机场能见度的特征分析 [Analysis of the Characteristics of Visibility of Fuzhou Changle International Airport].China Science and Technology Expo.
.JPG)
.jpg)
Fuzhou Metro
Xiamen Metro
Wuyi Tram
