On September 27, Weining Caohai Airport reached a significant stage in its construction when a calibration aircraft from the Civil Aviation Flight Calibration Center of China successfully landed at the airfield, where the airport held the civil aviation industry's highest ceremonial salute, the "water salute."

The launch of this calibration flight marks the project's full transition from the main construction phase into the critical final stage of preparations for opening to air traffic.

Weining Caohai Airport sits at an elevation of 2,450.1 meters, making it the only high-plateau civil transport airport in Guizhou Province. With a total investment of 1.816 billion yuan, the project officially began construction on March 23, 2019.

The development includes a newly built runway 3,000 meters long and 45 meters wide, a new 4,000-square-meter terminal building, and five aircraft stands on the apron. Supporting facilities for air traffic control, fuel supply, and fire and rescue services are also being built.

This phase is designed to handle an annual passenger throughput of 350,000 people and a cargo and mail throughput of 1,050 tonnes, with the airfield area rated at 4C.

Flight calibration is an indispensable and critical step before an airport opens to traffic. During this calibration period, the flight crew will carry out systematic testing, calibration and verification of the airport's communication and navigation facilities, navigational aid lighting, flight procedures, airspace conditions and various operational support systems.

The work will comprehensively verify whether the airport's software and hardware facilities meet civil aviation safety operation standards, providing a technical basis for subsequent test flights and industry acceptance checks.

A person in charge of the airport's aviation support department said this calibration is a full health check of key equipment such as communications, navigation and navigational aid lighting before the airport opens.

The team will continue to closely follow the progress of calibration items and immediately investigate and correct any problems found during the process. After the calibration work is completed, the airport will steadily advance preparations including completion acceptance, test flights, industry acceptance and the application for an airport operating license, striving for the airport to open as soon as possible.

Next, the Caohai Airport Company will coordinate and push forward completion acceptance, test flights, industry acceptance and the airport operating license application, making every effort to bring the airport into formal operation at an early date, so that the "air corridor" can become a new engine driving high-quality regional economic and social development.

Once Weining Caohai Airport is completed and put into operation, it will further improve Guizhou Province's "one hub and thirteen regional" airport layout, better serve the national civil aviation development strategy, raise the level of openness of Weining and surrounding counties and cities, and inject new momentum into regional rural revitalization, the upgrading of the cultural and tourism industry, and exchanges with the outside world, enhancing the region's economic development potential.