Beginning on June 8, Kunming follows in the footsteps of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen to become China’s sixth city to offer 24/7 airport customs clearance services.

After the implementation of the new services, international flights, passengers and import and export goods enjoy faster customs clearances upon arrival at Kunming Changshui International Airport. These changes substantially reduce waiting times and costs. They also help enhance Kunming’s position as Yunnan’s aviation hub connecting South and Southeast Asia and make Kunming more globally competitive. These services help Yunnan Province achieve its objectives of connecting with the capitals of all South and Southeast Asian countries by air, thus increasing international routes and launching new intercontinental ones.

The new 24/7 customs clearance services will strongly support Kunming Airport’s development. In the future, early morning flights will become more common, chartered tour flights will become a trend and international flights will increase rapidly. It is expected that the number of international flights and passengers will maintain an average growth of more than 25 percent over the next four years, and that number will hopefully double at a rate of every three years. By 2020, the airport is expected to handle 50,000 international flights and six million international travellers per year.

In addition, Yunnan Province’s first electronic immigration control and customs inspection system has been successfully put into operation at the airport, enabling inbound passengers to pass through customs checks in five seconds and then have their luggage inspected. Passengers only need to pass their passports or other valid documents into computerized document readers. Then, the system will make a logical analysis and comparison of the document information so that passengers can complete customs clearance more efficiently and conveniently.