China's long-awaited Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, which officially began operations on Sunday morning, has demonstrated the country's airport ambitions, and further opened up the southwestern regions in China, CNN reported yesterday.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, is now the third city in the country to have two international airports, joining Shanghai and Beijing.

Constructed at a cost of about 70 billion yuan ($10.8 billion), phase one of the massive aviation hub has the capacity to handle up to 60 million passengers per year.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the Tianfu airport will eventually house terminals covering 1.4 million square meters, capable of handling 120 million passengers annually.

Phase one of the airport took five years to complete and features an array of cutting-edge technologies, including facial recognition software, self-check-in kiosks, smart security systems, self-boarding gates and AI robot concierges.

It takes 37 to 44 minutes from city center to the airport by metro line, with speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour.

Renowned for its spicy cuisine and beautiful scenery, Chengdu is one of the most popular tourist destinations among both domestic and international travelers.

As more than 80 percent of China's pandas are in Sichuan, the latest mega-airport also offers travelers a new gateway to the home of giant pandas, CNN said.

"The new airport in Chengdu was needed to accommodate continued rapid growth," aviation analyst Brendan Sobie told CNN. "China's domestic market has already fully recovered from the pandemic and will continue to grow rapidly. Given the size of the city and its central location in China, Chengdu is very well-positioned to benefit."

According to the latest figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), China's domestic traffic went up 6.8 percent year-on-year in April 2021. Baiyun International Airport in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou unseated Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson to become the world's busiest airport last year.

Prior to the pandemic, the old Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport was the fourth largest in the country, by passenger volume. In 2020, "it was actually the second largest as it was less impacted by the pandemic than other major airports due to its high reliance on the domestic market," added Sobie, CNN reported.

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is just one of many airports China plans to open in the coming years.

According to the Transportation Network Planning Outline issued by the government in early 2021, the country aims to have 400 airports in use by 2035, a huge leap from the current 241.