The Yunnan Province Civil Aviation (YPCA) is developing a new airport outside of Kunming, which will replace the current Wujajiba city airport. The airport is 25 km northeast of Kunming's city centre and will have a capacity of 60 million annual passengers in the ultimate phase.

After being in the jury during the terminal design competition, NACO was invited to prepare a land use plan for on and off airport development in association with New Era, a local Chinese consultant. The total available site on air-premises is about 21 km² and the total available land outside the airport premises is about 300 km², of which approximately 30 km² will be used for economic development.

The two objectives of YPCA are to develop New Kunming Xiaoshao Airport (KXIA) into the main hub for south (east) Asia, linking China with i.e. Viet Nam, Thailand and Laos and to develop the periphery of the new airport into an economic zone supporting the airport functions.

Major Chinese airports have an ‘'Airport City'' development around the airport that usually consist of a logistics park. NACO treated the area as a comprehensive economic region with clusters of industrial, commercial, urban and environmental functions. By developing dedicated zones and taking into account Kunming's unique local characteristics, NACO created opportunities for regional and international firms to settle on and near the airport. With that, NACO shaped the basis for the successful ‘'Airport City'' development, which focuses on revenue while keeping the environmental stability of the region in mind.