Panzhihua Baoanying Airport (IATA: PZI, ICAO: ZUZH) is located in the southeast of Panzhihua city- The Baoanying Town，537km air distance from Chengdu，193 km from Kunming, 173km from Dali, and 155km from Lijiang. Airport project started from 28th June 2000, started service after 4 years (2004). Airport build on the a continuous hillside at an elevation of 1980m (6497ft) above sea level, belong to plateau airport . Airspace class: 4C, runway length: 2800metres, 4 parking stand. The airport can accommodate jumbo jets like Boeing 737 or Airbus 320 to take off and land.

Terrain feature:

The terrain position of airport is located in south-east edge of Tibetan Plateau. The features are: Mountainous, Complex terrain, High elevation and High temperature. Airport builds on the top of the BaoAnying Mountain, linear distance from Panzhihua city only 8.7km. Airport surrounded on three sides by JingSha River. (West, North and East), altitude intercept between airport and river more than 1000metres. Airport elevation is 1980.2 meters, runway direction: north-south, (02-20) main runway operations direction is facing south. (Rwy 20) The approach procedure operation in the east airspace of the airport, runway clearance condition is good.

Operations feature:

Panzhihua airport only install Rwy20 ILS system because of the terrain limit. The guide slope of Rwy20 ILS may appear fluctuate and indication error in the last 4NM final approach by complex terrain and strong turbulence. Airport have Wind-measurement instrument at both of the runway end. However, do not have Doppler radar and Wind-shear detection equipment. The runway has edge light but no Centre-line light; landing in the night could easily cause the collimation error; taxi direction control after landing becomes difficult. Fuel storage capacity is insufficiency, in normal conditions; do not provide the refueling service except the EMB145 aircraft.

Climatic feature:

Airport not only affected by the influence of the Westerlies weather systems, but also affected by tropical and subtropical weather systems. Alpine vertical climate difference is significant. Strong convection and turbulence affect the flight safety greatly. Cause the special terrain, power factor and the influence of thermal condition, in wind season usually establish the 5m/s strong wind after noon and quickly become turbulence ; the wind speed and direction widely different in the runway range, sometimes even opposite wind direction between runway end and runway mid, so that seriously affect the flight safety.