Sichuan Border Inspection reported late on 5 May that Chengdu Tianfu and Shuangliu airports handled more than 90,000 international passenger movements and 600 flights over the May-Day stretch, up 5.5 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. Foreign nationals accounted for 21,000 of those trips, a 9.2 percent rise driven by reciprocal visa-waiver deals China signed with Russia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Outbound Chinese travellers mirrored the pattern: those four markets were the top choices for Sichuan residents taking advantage of ‘please-four-days-off-for-eleven’ holiday hacks. Chengdu now boasts 104 scheduled international routes, making it the inland city with the country’s largest intercontinental network.
![Chengdu airport logs 90,000 cross-border trips as visa reciprocity fuels ‘double-flow’ tourism]()
Travellers who need clarity on the fast-changing visa landscape can turn to VisaHQ for up-to-date guidance and streamlined online applications; the platform’s China page (https://www.visahq.com/china/) details current requirements while also covering hundreds of other destinations, making multi-country trip planning far simpler.
That connectivity is encouraging multinationals to base West China regional teams in Chengdu, as staff can fly long-haul without connecting in Beijing or Shanghai. Border formalities have also modernised. The local e-channel enrolment office extended hours until midnight during the holiday and trialled a WeChat mini-program for arrival-card pre-clearance, reducing average clearance time to under six minutes, according to border police. Global mobility managers should watch aircraft gauge allocations: airlines kept wide-body utilisation tight during the holiday, prompting some last-minute downgrades and luggage off-loads. Early booking and real-time monitoring via carrier apps remain best practice.
Travellers who need clarity on the fast-changing visa landscape can turn to VisaHQ for up-to-date guidance and streamlined online applications; the platform’s China page (https://www.visahq.com/china/) details current requirements while also covering hundreds of other destinations, making multi-country trip planning far simpler.
That connectivity is encouraging multinationals to base West China regional teams in Chengdu, as staff can fly long-haul without connecting in Beijing or Shanghai. Border formalities have also modernised. The local e-channel enrolment office extended hours until midnight during the holiday and trialled a WeChat mini-program for arrival-card pre-clearance, reducing average clearance time to under six minutes, according to border police. Global mobility managers should watch aircraft gauge allocations: airlines kept wide-body utilisation tight during the holiday, prompting some last-minute downgrades and luggage off-loads. Early booking and real-time monitoring via carrier apps remain best practice.
