Sanya airport international arrivals top 1 million for first time since 2023

Why it matters: Hainan runs its own visa-free entry scheme, separate from China's nationwide transit policies, and has steadily widened it to cover more countries. For travellers, that makes the island province one of the easiest places in China to enter without a visa, and Sanya's numbers show the policy is drawing visitors. The airport's growth also reflects how Chinese resort cities are competing for international tourists.

Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Hainan, in southern China, has passed 1 million cross-border passenger trips this year, the first time it has done so since the airport resumed international flights in 2023, according to Xinjingbao.

Zhou Jianan, deputy head of a duty team at the Fenghuang border inspection station, said the airport recorded 1.038 million inbound and outbound passenger trips and more than 6,000 international flights between Dec 18 last year and Oct 20, up 29.7% and 22.5% year on year.

Foreign nationals made up 84.9% of those passengers, at 837,000 trips. Visa-free arrivals accounted for 97.6% of foreign entries, Zhou said.

Hainan expanded its visa-free scheme on Aug 20, adding Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam to a 30-day visa-free list that now covers 61 countries. Citizens of 88 countries can enter Hainan without a visa with an ordinary passport, according to the report.

The airport now has 38 international passenger routes, including a "Sanya–Prague" route under seventh-freedom traffic rights and fifth-freedom routes, covering Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Russian-speaking markets. Most foreign arrivals come from Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, mainly for tourism and business.

The border inspection station said it has opened all 38 inspection lanes and added three international boarding gates at Terminal 3. It said new software has cut 30 seconds from each person's clearance and about 30 minutes from each flight's processing.