Longjia International Airport was approved for construction in 1998. Construction started on 29 May 2003, and the airport began its operations on 27 August 2005. It is named after Longjia (??), the town where it is located. It replaced the dual-use civil and military Changchun Dafangshen Airport, which reverted to sole military use. The airport was later expanded, beginning in 2009 and finishing construction in May 2011. The construction added two more gates with air bridges to the international section of the terminal, and enlarged the apron to the airport. Afterward, the airport was able to accommodate long-distance wide-body jets such as the Boeing 747. The terminal, after its expansion encompasses 73,300 m2 (789,000 sq ft). of space. It was predicted that by 2015, the airport would be able to handle 6.5 million passengers per year. As in the year 2013, Changchun Airport received a passenger flow of 6.7 million, making it the 30th busiest airport in Mainland China. The airport serves most major cities in China and East Asia, with scheduled international flights to Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, and so on. In 2021, it gained direct access to Europe when Air China started flights to Frankfurt. It is one of the major international gateways in North-eastern China.