Korla Licheng Airport KRL / ZWKL

CAAC's 2025 national production-statistics bulletin reported Korla Licheng at 2,959,190 passengers (+4.4% versus 2024), 27,439 aircraft movements, and 9,275.7 tonnes of cargo; secondary summaries place it around 66th among China's certified transport airports on that basis, though that specific rank was not independently cross-checked against the primary CAAC bulletin table. The airport serves Korla, seat of Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture (China's largest prefecture-level division by area) in the Tarim Basin, and is also the corporate base for PetroChina's Tarim oilfield operations, giving it a meaningful energy-sector charter and business-aviation component alongside scheduled service. Formerly known simply as 'Korla Airport'; renamed to 'Korla Licheng Airport' in the early 2020s per Civil Aviation Administration correspondence, though the precise month (a January 2022 date appears in some references) could not be — treat that specific date as unconfirmed. Route network is domestic-only as far as public sources confirm, spanning roughly 40+ cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, Ürümqi, Kashgar and Hotan via China Southern, Air China, China Eastern and regional carriers — no international/regional customs-cleared route or immigration facility was found, so this is treated here as a domestic-only field pending confirmation otherwise. Single-runway (04/22, 2,780 m concrete) civil-military joint-use aerodrome shared with the PLA Air Force; a 27 March 2025 apron-expansion groundbreaking added eight Category C aircraft stands. No ILS category for RWY 04/22 could be confirmed from public sources — planners should not assume CAT I/II/III minima without checking the current AIP/Jeppesen chart directly, and given the shared military use, PPR/security procedures should be reconfirmed with Xinjiang Airport Group ahead of non-scheduled operations.