Wuhan Tianhe International Airport
Wuhan Tianhe International Airport
Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (IATA: WUH, ICAO: ZHHH) is an international airport serving Wuhan, the capital of South Central China's Hubei province. It was opened on 15 April 1995, replacing the old Wuhan Wangjiadun Airport and Nanhu Airport as the major airport of Wuhan. The airport is located in Wuhan's suburban Huangpi District, around 26 km (16 mi) to the north of Wuhan city center. It is the busiest airport in central China as it is geographically located in the centre of China's airline route network. The airport served 31,339,277 passengers in 2025, making it the 14th busiest airport by passenger traffic in China. The airport is a hub for China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines while serving as a focus city for Air China. The name Tianhe (??) can be literally translated as "Sky River"; Tianhe is also one of the names for the Milky Way in ancient Chinese. Since 2019, passengers from 53 countries such as the EU countries, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the U.S., when transiting to a third country, can enter China from this airport without a Chinese visa for up to 144 hours.
Location
30.775°N, 114.214°E · 34 m s. n. m. (113 ft)
General data
Runways · 3
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 3
Tower
Ground
ATIS (automatic information)
Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.
History
To replace the old Wangjiadun Airport and Nanhu Airport, the Chinese government permitted plans to build a commercial airport in Tianhe Town, Huangpi District, Wuhan on 1 July 1985. The first term construction started in December 1989 and finished in April 1994. It initially operated domestic flights but later in 2000, the CAA re-designated it as an international airport.
Nanhu Airport was the main airport of Wuhan before 1995. Although built in 1936 as a military airport and 1951 as a civil airport, it was located near the city center, and by 1994, air traffic had greatly increased and the airport was too small to handle larger amount of passengers. The first international flight from and to Wuhan only started on Halloween 1992, when Wuhan-Vientiane route was opened.
The airport was opened on 15 April 1995, and the old Nanhu Airport was closed at the same time. Any passengers still waiting at Nanhu Airport were immediately taken by bus to the new Tianhe Airport. Wangjiadun Airport was still open at that time, but mainly for military operations, and was closed and then demolished in 2007.
The airport has expanded three times – first for terminal 2 and second for terminal 3, a new control tower, and the second runway. The third expansion was started in 2022 and completed in early 2025, adding a third runway (3,200 meters long). Future plans include adding a fourth terminal, a satellite terminal, and potentially a fourth runway. Wuhan opened up to intercontinental flights when Air France began service from Paris on 11 April 2012, and two years later opened up to the United States non-stop when China Southern Airlines announced, in September 2014, a daily non-stop flight to San Francisco, originating from Guangzhou, operating with a Boeing 787 to begin 16 December 2014.
On 23 January 2020, the airport was closed due to the 2020 Hubei lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the first outbreak happened in Wuhan. The airport reopened on 8 April 2020 following a large-scale disinfection.
Airlines operating here · 35
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: Howchou · CC BY-SA 3.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH). Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH
MLA
“Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_wuh,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/WUH |title=Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}