Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport
Facts on CTU
CTU stayed with the old field. When Chengdu Tianfu International opened on 27 June 2021 it was issued the separate code TFU, and Chengdu became the third city in China with two international airports, after Beijing and Shanghai.
Source: Wikipedia
Shuangliu takes its name from the Chengdu district around it. The characters 双流 mean "double flow", and a county of that name has existed here since 601 CE, when the Sui dynasty created Shuangliu County within Shu Commandery. It was upgraded from county to city district on 1 March 2016.
Source: Wikipedia
The airfield opened in 1938 under an entirely different name: Shuangguisi Airport (成都双桂寺机场). It became Chengdu Shuangliu Airport when the Civil Aviation Administration of China took it over on 12 December 1956, and the word "International" was added on 30 November 1995, after approval as a port of entry in 1993.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport was a front line before it was an airport. Republic of China Air Force Polikarpov I-15 fighters defended Chengdu from here, and on 14 March 1941 three pilots — Major Wong Sun-shui, Captain Cen Zeliu and Lieutenant Lin Heng — were killed over the base by Mitsubishi A6M Zeros.
Source: Wikipedia
Americans called it Shwangliu Airfield. The USAAF Fourteenth Air Force used it during the China Defensive Campaign of 1942-45; in 1944 the 33d Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolts from the field in support of Chinese ground troops. The Americans closed their facilities there at the end of August 1945.
Source: Wikipedia
Shuangliu sits 495 m above sea level and works two parallel runways, each 3,600 m long. The second, which entered service in December 2009 and is 60 m wide, lifted the airfield's rating from 4E to 4F — the class required to handle an Airbus A380.
Source: Wikipedia
Even after most international routes moved to Chengdu's newer airport, Shuangliu handled 33,518,945 passengers, 222,551 aircraft movements and 735,575.7 tonnes of freight in 2025, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China's annual statistics.
Source: Wikipedia
KLM opened Chengdu's first intercontinental route, to Amsterdam, on 28 May 2006. United Airlines added the first nonstop link to the United States, from San Francisco, on 9 June 2014. Chengdu Metro Line 10 reached both terminals on 6 September 2017.
Source: Wikipedia