Departure
99%
vs 95% ▲ 4
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport (ZLLL/LHW) is the principal gateway to Gansu province in northwest China, sited well away from the city it serves in the Lanzhou New Area. It is a major hub airport with a single very long paved runway, full ILS coverage, and control tower service, making it a straightforward if imposing destination for simulator pilots flying into western China.
Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport serves Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, and is operated by Gansu Airport Group. It sits in the Zhongchuan area of Lanzhou New Area, in Yongdeng County, and functions as a focus city airport for China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Spring Airlines. For a simulator pilot it offers a large, modern hub airport experience with a very long instrument runway and heavy scheduled traffic, set against the dramatic dry hill country of northwest China.
The airport lies about 71 kilometres northwest of downtown Lanzhou, a considerable distance dictated by the geography around the city, making it one of the more remote major airports from the urban centre it serves anywhere in China. It sits at a field elevation of 6,355 feet in Gansu province.
The airport has a single physical runway, 18/36, running north-south. It is 11,821 feet long with a hard (concrete) surface, is lit, and is equipped with ILS in both directions, giving instrument approach capability to either end.
Air traffic control is provided by Lanzhou Tower on 118.1 MHz. The runway is equipped with ILS, supporting instrument approaches to either threshold.
Lanzhou's original airport, Gongxingdun, stood only about 2 kilometres from the city centre, but by 1957 the Civil Aviation Administration of China judged this site too restrictive and selected a new location near Zhongchuan town. Construction of the new airport began in 1968, and it opened on 26 July 1970, when the first aircraft to land was an Ilyushin Il-14 operating one of five domestic routes then served. Passenger numbers grew from 100,000 a year in 1980 to 500,000 by 1995. An expansion project launched in 1997 led to the opening of the current Terminal 1 in 2001, handling up to 2.6 million passengers annually. Traffic passed 3 million passengers a year in 2010, prompting a second expansion phase and a new Terminal 2, which opened in 2015 alongside the Lanzhou-Zhongchuan Airport intercity railway link to the city. By 2019 the airport was handling over 15 million passengers a year. A third expansion phase, begun in 2019 at a cost of 31.69 billion yuan, added a new Terminal 3 and two further 4,000-metre runways; to make way for this work the adjoining Zhongchuan town and several villages were demolished and their residents relocated. Terminal 3, four times the combined floor area of the earlier terminals, opened on 20 March 2025.
Lanzhou Zhongchuan is now one of China's busier airports, having carried 17.7 million passengers in 2025 and ranking 29th busiest in the country. It functions as a major scheduled hub for western China and is a focus city for China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Spring Airlines, with a large modern terminal complex, extensive gates, and instrument-approach capability suited to heavy jet operations.
