Major Project Tour: Linyi Qiyang International Airport's Expansion Project Enters New Phase with T2 Terminal Official Operation

Starting from 00:00 on December 27, 2025, the T2 terminal of Linyi Qiyang International Airport was officially put into operation, marking the successful completion of the airport's fourth and largest-scale expansion project to date. All domestic inbound and outbound flights of the airport have been transferred to the T2 terminal for operation, while international (regional) flights continue to operate in the T1 terminal, opening a new chapter for Linyi's air transportation development.

The expansion and reconstruction project of Linyi Qiyang International Airport, which covers an area of about 413 mu with a total investment of approximately 3.096 billion yuan, is a key project in Shandong Province. The core construction content includes a new 100,600-square-meter terminal building, a 107,300-square-meter integrated transportation center, an energy center, an air traffic control building, a control tower, and supporting facilities such as an elevated road in front of the station. Undertaken by China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, the project started construction in March 2022, was completed in late October 2025, and successfully passed fire acceptance, civil aviation professional completion acceptance and industry acceptance in sequence, laying a solid foundation for its official operation.

As a benchmark project for the construction of small and medium-sized airport terminals in China, this expansion project has achieved multiple innovations and breakthroughs. Designed by the team of Academician Cui Kai from China Architecture Design & Research Group in accordance with the concept of "integrated airport-city development" and the requirements of building a "four-type airport", the new terminal creates an artistic conception of "high mountains and long rivers, rising sun over Qiyang". The dome of the terminal hall adopts a shape with curved edges and a raised middle part, forming an open and column-free transparent space. The roof of the hall uses an innovative special-shaped hyperboloid single-double layer mixed three-dimensional grid system, with a total weight of 5,856 tons, a maximum span of 83 meters and a projection area of about 46,000 square meters, equivalent to 102 standard basketball courts. To realize the precise closure of the "steel dome", the project team innovatively adopted the technology of "block assembly and zonal cumulative hoisting", and used single-point millimeter-level fine-tuning technology to intelligently hoist the large-span hyperboloid statically indeterminate grid structure, successfully achieving synchronous hoisting and precise positioning.

In terms of technological application, the project fully relies on advanced technologies such as BIM, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence to build a new smart construction ecosystem. By carrying out three-dimensional spatial data analysis of air routes and height limits based on BIM technology, optimizing the layout of large on-site equipment, and introducing real-time 3D scanning measurement technology, the project team effectively solved the problems of airspace height limit and precise installation of hyperboloid roof systems, ensuring the quality and safety of the project. The project has successively won the National BIM Technology Competition Gold Award, Shandong Provincial Engineering Quality Management Standardization Demonstration Project, Shandong Provincial Construction Safety and Civilization Standardized Construction Site and other honors, winning high recognition from the construction unit and the industry.

The official operation of the T2 terminal has brought subversive and leaping changes to Linyi Qiyang International Airport. The terminal area has jumped from the original 17,600 square meters to 100,600 square meters, nearly 6 times the original size. Equipped with 15 security check channels and 17 boarding bridges, the airport's passenger guarantee capacity has been greatly enhanced, and the maximum annual passenger throughput has increased from 1.35 million to 12 million, nearly 9 times the original capacity, reserving sufficient space for the airport's rapid development in the next decade at least. The new terminal adopts a "two-story" layout with departure on the second floor and arrival on the first floor, optimizing the passenger flow process and significantly improving operation efficiency. The newly built 65.85-meter-high control tower, with a broader field of vision and more advanced equipment, ensures the safe and smooth operation of air traffic.

As the earliest civil airport in Shandong Province, Linyi Qiyang International Airport has gone through three transformations and upgrades before this expansion. In 2019, it was renamed from Linyi Shubuling Airport to Linyi Qiyang Airport, and was approved as an air port open to the outside world, becoming the fifth airport in Shandong Province and the first airport in the old revolutionary base areas in China to be officially approved for port opening. With the completion and operation of the expansion project, Linyi Qiyang International Airport will further strengthen its positioning as a regional hub airport in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, a regional air logistics center, and a portal comprehensive transportation hub. It will not only better meet the rapidly growing air travel needs of the local and surrounding areas, but also attract more airlines to deploy capacity and open more domestic and international routes, promoting the in-depth integration of Linyi's commerce and logistics with the international market, and injecting strong impetus into the open development of the entire southern Shandong economic circle.

Linyi, known as the "Capital of Logistics" in China, is an important node city in the southern Shandong economic circle. The upgrading of the airport's transportation hub capacity will effectively improve the city's comprehensive transportation system, enhance the city's energy level and strategic position, and provide strong support for Linyi to build a national logistics hub and realize a higher level of opening up.