In 2014, the passenger flow of Harbin Taiping International Airport handled 12 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 40 percent, according to statistics.

In the first quarter, the peak season for the city’s tourism, the growth rate was as high as 78 percent.

This year, it handled 597,579 passengers and 4,574 flights from Jan 1 to 16, with a year-on-year growth of 15.1 and 14.6 percent, respectively, thanks to the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival and the Harbin Ice and Snow World, which were the most popular attractions for visitors.

Visitors to the influential conferences and exhibitions in Harbin are contributing to the growth of passengers to the airport.　

File photo shows a plane parked at Harbin Taiping International Airport on Aug 3, 2012. [Photo by Yan Daming/Asianewsphoto]
 

The first China-Russia Exposition, which opened on June 30, 2014, attracted more than 11,000 merchants from 67 countries as attendees and more than 280,000 people as visitors.

The day before the expo’s opening, the airport handled 36,000 passengers and 269 flights, hitting a historic high compared with the same period in previous years.

The large passenger flow in the airport made Harbin a battlefield for airline companies. The number of airplanes operated by Sichuan Airlines was increased to eight, and Shenzhen Airlines’ overnight planes grew to eight in 2014.

There are a total of 40 overnight air planes in Harbin Taiping International Airport.

More than 31 foreign and domestic airline companies, including Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and South Korea's Asiana Airlines have planes in operation at the airport.

A total of 157 air routes connect Harbin with 80 cities in China and abroad, building up a transport network that covers most major cities in Asia, Europe and America.