Recently, the General Office of the Ministry of Transport and three other national departments jointly issued the Notice on Carrying Out the Optimization of Passenger Transfer Procedures for Air-Rail (Transit) Intermodal Transport (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), which revealed that Hefei Xinqiao International Airport will be connected by the planned Hefei-Lu'an Intercity Railway, and that in terms of urban rail transit, in addition to the well-known Metro Line S1, the planned Metro Line 15 will also reach the airport.

The Notice states that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, in order to advance the optimization of transfer procedures for civil aviation arriving passengers transferring to railways and urban rail transit, efforts will be made to achieve optimized transfer procedures for air-rail (transit) intermodal passengers at some comprehensive passenger transport hubs that meet the conditions, with a focus on civil aviation arriving passengers without checked baggage transferring to railways or urban rail transit within the same hub. Fully enclosed security-check-free transfer channels should be set up in the airside restricted area before the baggage claim hall, leading to the railway station waiting room or the urban rail transit ticket gate.

There are a total of 17 comprehensive passenger transport hubs planned for construction that basically meet the conditions for optimizing passenger transfer procedures, including Hefei Xinqiao International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, and Shenzhen Bao'an Airport.

Among them, Hefei Xinqiao International Airport is positioned as a regional hub; the airport terminal project has progressed to the feasibility study having been approved, and the Hefei-Lu'an Intercity Railway is planned to connect to it. Among the urban rail transit lines connecting to the airport, in addition to the well-known Metro Line S1, there is also the planned Metro Line 15.

In addition, for civil aviation arriving passengers with checked baggage, civil aviation, railway, and urban rail transit market entities are encouraged to actively explore, innovate service models, extend service chains, and promote cooperation between civil aviation, railway, and urban rail transit-related enterprises and third-party enterprises to provide baggage through-check services for various modes such as civil aviation transfers to high-speed rail (intercity railway) and civil aviation transfers to urban rail transit, creating conditions for optimizing the transfer procedures for passengers with checked baggage and for traveling hands-free.