A new airport terminal in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, went into use Thursday, when flight CZ6175 for Chongqing took off at 7:20 a.m.
At a cost of 40 billion yuan (6.1 billion U.S. dollars), terminal 3 of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is expected to accommodate 35 million passengers annually by 2020, said Gan Xiangtian, deputy manager of Hubei airport group.
Annual cargo throughput may reach 440,000 tonnes.
T3 will take over all international and domestic flights, while T1 and T2 are renovated for budget airlines and special flights.
A transit center at the airport also opened Thursday, providing subway links, long-distance coaches, buses and cabs.
Tianhe airport saw 20.8 million passengers last year, up 9.6 percent from 2015. The airport has overseas flights to 47 cities in 24 countries.