Guangzhou's aviation history reaches back to the original Baiyun Airport, opened in 1932 near White Cloud Mountain, which by the 1990s had become dangerously hemmed in by the growing city. The entirely new Baiyun International Airport opened in August 2004 about 28 kilometers north of the city center, one of China's first major greenfield airport projects of the boom era. Inherited the old airport's name, meaning "white cloud."
The new airport was purpose-built as the fortress hub of China Southern Airlines, which grew into Asia's largest carrier by passengers. Expansion came rapidly: a third runway opened in 2015 and the vast Terminal 2 followed in 2018, lifting capacity toward 80 million passengers.
FedEx opened its Asia-Pacific hub at Baiyun in 2009, cementing the airport's cargo credentials in the manufacturing heartland of the Pearl River Delta. In 2020, as the pandemic collapsed global traffic but Chinese domestic flying recovered first, Baiyun became the busiest airport in the world for the year, the first time a Chinese airport held the title. Further expansion, including additional runways and Terminal 3, is underway to keep pace with the Greater Bay Area's growth.