China has unveiled an infrastructure project that will be a nationwide first and a world record breaker – the largest artificial island airport on Earth.
Projected to cost US$4.3 billion and covering 20 square kilometres, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the new island airport will be located in Dalian, a port city in northeastern China.
With completion set for 2035, Dalian Jinzhouwan International Airport will then knock Hong Kong International (12.48 sq km) into second place, and Japan’s Kansai International Airport (10.5 sq km) into third in the pecking order of artificial island airports.
Currently under construction off the country's northeast coast, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport will eventually cover a 20-square-kilometer (7.7-square-mile) island with four runways and a 900,000-square-meter (969,000 sq ft) passenger terminal. pic.twitter.com/NtizXs5Iil
— Saad Iqbal (iamcivilengineer) (@iamcivilengg) December 19, 2024
Four runways and up to 80 million passengers per year
Plans include four runways and a 900,000-square-metre terminal (9.69 million sq ft), which is anticipated to handle 43 million passengers in its early years, expanding to 80 million in the future, Airports Council International says. This will relieve the overburdened existing Dalian Zhoushuizi Airport, built by the Japanese, of some of its annual 658,000 international passengers.
According to the Government of Liaoning Province, the project will make use of cutting edge land reclamation techniques and will entail the use of millions of cubic metres of sand and rock to create the artificial island. Deep ground work to prepare soft and unstable foundations had been finished on more than 77,000 sqm of August 2024, with further land reclamation and terminal foundation work still to come.
The construction of the terminal complex and its front viaduct pile foundation at Dalian Jinzhouwan International Airport officially began on the morning of October 12th.
— iLiaoning (@iLiaoning) October 15, 2024
Dalian Jinzhouwan International Airport, the first offshore “artificial island” airport in China. pic.twitter.com/bNrVY8guG0
From marsh to “superior valley location”
Eventually to be linked to the mainland by bridges, the island airport will also need to be protected from vulnerabilities such as earthquakes, storms and even shipping collisions that could cut it off from the mainland, something that critics have raised questions about. While authorities have praised the “superior valley location”, the airport site among mountains has also been pointed out as a potential visibility hazard, particularly in bad weather conditions.
Still, with a local population of around six million, and a rich range of local industries from logistics, to services to oil refining, shipping, and a growing tourism market, alongside the new airport connectivity, Dalian, once marshlands dubbed “smelly waters” by locals, is for now, literally and metaphorically, on the up.
While Dalian, is set to be “truly the largest airport of its kind,” according to Li Hanming, founder of aviation consultancy SCMP, it is just one of 22 active airport builds happening around China, representing a total investment of US$19.6 billion, according to CAPA-Centre for Aviation, a leading aviation intelligence group, cited by Interesting Engineering.
