Urumqi Diwobao International Airport is located in Diwobao, northwest of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 16.8 kilometers from downtown Urumqi. It is one of China's two major national gateway hub airports, alongside Kunming Changshui International Airport. As a Class I civil airport, it is a national international aviation hub and one of China's eight regional hub airports.
Originally a Sino-Soviet civil aviation airport, Urumqi Diwobao Airport was approved by the State Council in July 1970 for a major expansion. It was completed and opened to the public in 1973. In August 1998, the first phase of expansion and renovation, focusing on the flight and maintenance areas, passed acceptance tests and was put into operation. On September 29, 2009, the third-phase expansion project passed acceptance. Terminal 3 (T3) was officially opened on December 26, and the entire T3 terminal became operational on March 27, 2010.
Urumqi International Airport has an airfield rating of 4E, with an elevation of 647.67 meters. It features one runway measuring 3,600 × 45 × 0.38 meters and one taxiway measuring 3,600 × 28 × 0.28 meters. Runway operations are categorized as Category I for runway 07 and Category II for runway 25, with a firefighting and rescue service level of 9.
The airport has three terminals—T1, T2, and T3—with a total area of 185,000 square meters, a 60,000-square-meter cargo terminal, 93 aircraft stands, and 34 jet bridges. It is equipped with 111 check-in counters, 12 self-service kiosks, 47 security screening lanes, 12 outbound baggage carousels, and 9 inbound baggage carousels. The airport has the capacity to handle 17.3 million passengers, 275,000 tons of cargo and mail, and 155,000 aircraft movements annually.
Since August 2007, Beijing Jinghang'an Airport Engineering Co., Ltd. has successively undertaken projects at Urumqi Diwobao International Airport, including the airfield lighting, apron lighting installation, and power supply installation for the lighting station as part of the expansion; the airfield lighting and power supply for the second taxiway project; and the airfield lighting and apron lighting for the new apron constructed south of the T3 terminal's A concourse. All projects undertaken were successfully accepted upon completion and smoothly handed over for use. The project department was awarded the honorary title of "Autonomous Region Model Worker Team" by the Urumqi Construction Headquarters.
