Chengdu Tianfu International Airport — Chengdu (Jianyang), China

Rising from farmland in Jianyang, roughly 50 kilometers southeast of downtown Chengdu, TFU opened in mid-2021 as Sichuan province's answer to surging air travel demand in western China. Its debut made Chengdu one of only a handful of Chinese cities operating two major international gateways alongside older Shuangliu Airport, splitting traffic between domestic and international operations. The terminal complex, designed with sweeping curved rooflines said to evoke a blooming sunflower, was built to eventually support as many as six runways and tens of millions of annual passengers, reflecting the city's ambition to rival Beijing and Shanghai as an aviation hub. Sichuan Airlines and China Eastern established substantial operations there, using it to connect the Sichuan Basin to destinations across Asia, Europe, and beyond. For a metropolis famous for pandas and spicy cuisine, TFU signaled a new chapter in regional connectivity.