Pascal Luc Henri was awarded by the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport for officially becoming international passenger number 4 million in 2015. [Photo/newsssc.org]

Pascal Luc Henri arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at around 13:50 on Christmas Eve. He was waiting for his flight to Amsterdam when out of nowhere he was surprised with a medal awarded by the airport staff for officially becoming international passenger number 4 million in 2015.

As a French national married to a Chengdu local and lived in the city for the past ten years, Henri said the city has witnessed profound changes within this period. "Ten years ago I had to transfer in Beijing or Guangzhou to reach Chengdu, which made my trip quite tiresome, but now I can fly directly home within 10 hours," Henri said.

The Chengdu Daily reported Chengdu's airport has received over 40 million passengers this year, making it the fourth largest airport in China. The airport has also seen a spike in the number of exit-entry passengers. It took 30 years for Chengdu's airport to reach 1 million in 2010, and since then the number jumped 300% to 4 million in 2015.

The airport's increase in the number of travelers has a direct impact on the city's move to build a new airport – Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Jianyang city. In fact, the plan has already been written in the city's 13th Five-Year-Plan and it began to take effect on Dec 17 when the site started its construction.

In a May 2015 interview with Huaxi Metropolis Daily, The CEO of Sichuan Province Airport Group Co Ltd, Pan Jianjun said that the new airport is expected to finish construction by 2019.

"By the time 2020 comes around, passenger capacity is estimated to reach 30 million and cargo capacity 350, 000 tons," Pan said.

Huaxi Metropolis Daily also reported Chengdu being the industrial base to 268 of the world's Fortune 500 companies, and that 80% of the world's Ipad, 50% of the notebook chips and 20% of the notebooks are made in Chengdu.

According to a Dec 10 report by eeo.com.cn, Chengdu plans to open at least three new direct international flights every year, and that there will be 55 international direct flights by 2020.

Currently, the city has few direct flights overseas. Aside from a flight to San Francisco, Mauritius and Melbourne, the city runs direct flight to five European cities: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Moscow, Paris.