Ili Yining International Airport is an airport located in Yining (Ghulja) City, within the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is operated by Xinjiang Airport Group Co., Ltd. Construction of the original Yining Airport began in 1936, and over the decades it has used several names, including Yili Air Station (ä¼ÂçÂÂèª空ç«Â), Civil Aviation Yining Station (æ°Âç¨èª空ä¼Âå®Âç«Â), CAAC ÃÂrümqi Administration Yining Airport (æ°Âèªä¹Âé²Âæ¨é½Â管çÂÂå±Âä¼Âå®Âæºåº), Xinjiang Airport Group Yining Airport (æ°çÂÂæºåºéÂÂå¢æÂÂéÂÂ责任堬å¸ä¼Âå®Âæºåº) and Xinjiang Airport Group Yining (Nalati) Airport.
In 2009, Yining Airport (ä¼Âå®Âæºåº) and Nalati Airport (é£æÂÂæÂÂæºåº) were placed under unified or joint operation under the Xinjiang Airport Group. The airport is currently undergoing a key transition toward becoming a permanently normalized international aviation port. On June 6, 2024, the Civil Aviation Administration of China approved its renaming to Ili Yining International Airport (; Simplified Chinese: ä¼ÂçÂÂä¼Âå®Âå½é æºåº).
Ili Yining International Airport, originally known as the Yili Air Station, began construction on July 29, 1936. About three months later, on October 31, the airport was fully completed. The airfield measured 950 meters in length and 750 meters in width, and it could accommodate Junkers aircraft carrying three to five passengers. It was among the earliest airports built in Xinjiang. The first-generation terminal building entered service in 1939, and the second-generation terminal building, with a total area of âÂÂâÂÂ817 square meters, was put into use in 1958.
In 1984, the third-generation terminal building of Yining Airport was put into use, and the runway was extended to 1,800 meters.
The airport underwent two expansions and renovations in 2005 and 2010, increasing its total assets from 70 million yuan in 2004 to 391 million yuan today. The terminal building has a total construction area of âÂÂâÂÂ16,700 square meters, including the fourth-generation terminal that went into operation in July 2011, which has three boarding bridges and a parking lot of 18,000 square meters. It can meet the needs of 1.5 million passengers, 1,100 tons of cargo and mail, and 15,306 takeoffs and landings per year, with a peak hourly takeoff and landing capacity of 10 flights and a peak hourly passenger capacity of 962 passengers.
In August 2016, the State Council approved the opening of Yining Airport to the outside world. In the same year, Yining Airport's passenger throughput exceeded 1 million for the first time. In December 2023, the airport passed national inspection and was officially designated as an aviation port open to international traffic (对å¤Âå¼Âæ¾çÂÂèª空å£岸).
The airport is at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 06/24 which measures .