# Daocheng Yading Airport (DCY)

> Garzê (Daocheng), CN · IATA: DCY · ICAO: ZUDC · Medium Airport

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `DCY` |
| ICAO | `ZUDC` |
| City | Garzê (Daocheng) |
| Country | CN |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 4411 m |
| Cargo | ❌ |
| GPS | 29.31632, 100.06032 |

## Description

Roughly 63 tonnes of cargo in 2021 is the entire annual freight record of Daocheng Yading (DCY/ZUDC) — a figure that says more about the airport than its more famous one, 4,411 metres above sea level, the highest of any civil airport in the world. Sitting on the Tibetan plateau of Sichuan's Garzê prefecture, it opened in September 2013 with a 4,200-metre runway sized to compensate for thin air, and is served by medium-range types such as the Airbus A319 and Boeing 737. The one-hour flight from Chengdu replaces a two-day drive over passes above 4,000 metres, with seasonal services from Chongqing, Guangzhou and Xi'an. What little freight passes through travels as belly cargo; there is no cargo terminal, no freighter operation and no customs post, and altitude-restricted payloads make the airport unattractive even for express consignments. Air freight for western Sichuan is therefore handled at Chengdu Tianfu (TFU) and Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) and trucked onward along the G4218 expressway. For temperature-controlled and pharmaceutical goods, that multi-day road leg — not the flight — is the constraint to plan around.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/daocheng-yading-airport-dcy](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/daocheng-yading-airport-dcy)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/daocheng-yading-airport-dcy](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/daocheng-yading-airport-dcy)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/daocheng-yading-airport-dcy/llm-summary*