Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport has just logged its busiest stretch of passenger traffic since the pandemic, underscoring how trade shows and looser visa rules are turning into hard numbers for the Greater Bay Area’s main aviation hub.
According to Baiyun Immigration Inspection, the airport processed more than 1.14 million inbound and outbound passengers between 15 April and 5 May, a 14.5 percent year‑on‑year increase. The surge coincided with the 139th Canton Fair and the May Day holiday, creating a two‑week window that airport officials say has pushed volumes close to – and in some segments beyond – pre‑Covid levels.
Foreign business travellers were at the heart of the spike. Nearly 540,000 foreign merchants passed through Baiyun during the Canton Fair period, up 20.8 percent from 2025. Nearly half of them held visas or permits granting stays in excess of 10 days.
Immigration data show that visa‑free arrivals at the airport jumped 56 percent to about 120,000 in those three weeks, driven by Beijing’s expanded 30‑day unilateral visa‑waiver policy for 45 countries and a streamlined e‑arrival card system that has cut paperwork for last‑minute travellers.
[See more: Guangzhou Baiyun airport rejoins world’s top 10 busiest hubs]
The overlap with the May Day “golden week” gave the numbers an extra push. Between 1 and 5 May alone, Baiyun handled more than 1,700 international flights and around 290,000 passengers, increases of roughly 14 and 16 percent respectively compared with the same holiday period last year.
Guangzhou Customs said all of the city’s ports – including Baiyun, the Pazhou Hong Kong–Macao ferry terminal and Nansha’s Hong Kong routes – saw double‑digit growth over the break, suggesting a broader Bay‑area network effect rather than a one‑off spike at a single airport.
Airlines have responded quickly. Since early April, weekly international frequencies at Baiyun are up around 10 percent, restoring links to secondary cities such as Perth and Milan and adding cargo capacity for exhibitors flying samples in and orders out.
The latest figures build on a strong 2025 base: Baiyun surpassed 80 million annual passengers for the first time last year, with more than 16.6 million international travellers – over one‑fifth of the total – and year‑on‑year growth in overseas traffic of about 19 percent.
