The Three Gorges Airport, which will serve the world's largest dam project with regular air flights, officially opened on December 28, 1996.

The Three Gorges Airport will give a strong push to the construction of the Three Gorges Project and the development of local economy.

The airport, with a 2,600-meter-long and 45-meter-wide runway, and a terminal building of 15,000 square meters, is capable of handling 1.4 million passengers annually.

It can accommodate jumbo jets, such as Boeing-737s and Boeing-767s, as well as TU-154s, MD-82s and other large and medium sized aircraft.

The airport is 26 kilometers from the center of the Yichang City and 55 km from the dam site in central China's Hubei Province.

The airport is linked with an expressway and close to a major railway line.

Construction of the airport started in 1994 and ended in October 1996, with an investment of 685 million yuan (82.5 million US dollars).

The airport has already lined up flights to 11 major cities in China.

In 1997, it will gradually open up flights to Huizhou, Zhengzhou, Zhangjiagang, Changsha and Haikou, providing 46 flights a week.

An expansion plan has also been made to extend the airport's runway to 3,200 meters in the future, increasing its annual handling capacity to five million passengers.