The Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone (Zhengzhou Airport Zone) is China's first and only national pioneer zone of airport economy. It is also the first pilot zone in inland China to do cross-border Renminbi business and introduce overseas talent, and a forerunner zone in building the Zhengzhou-Luxembourg "Air Silk Road."

About 25 kilometers southeast of downtown Zhengzhou, the airport zone, covering 747 square kilometers with a population of nearly one million, is located right in the center of the Zhengzhou-Kaifeng-Xuchang triangle region, commanding an advantageous position of connecting different parts of the country.

Established in March 2013, the zone is designed as an international air logistics center, a modern industrial base led by the aviation economy, an important inland gateway of opening up, a modern aviation city, and a core growth pole in the Central Plains economic zone. It is a comprehensive transportation hub integrating various travel modes, including aviation, high-speed railway, subway, urban rail transit, normal-speed railway, expressway, and fast road. According to the Outline of the Ecological Protection and High-quality Development Plan of the Yellow River Basin, efforts will be made to support the zone in strengthening its leading industries and to speed up the construction of the Zhengzhou International Air Cargo Hub.

At present, the Zhengzhou Airport Zone is home to the Xinzheng International Airport, the Xinzheng Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the functional ports for meat, medicine, live cattle, fruits, chilled aquatic products, edible aquatic animals, and international mail transit, two industrial clusters each with a 100-billion-yuan output value (in electronic information; trade, convention, and exhibition), and eight ones each with a 10-billion-yuan output value (in biomedicine, smart devices, semiconductor, new display, new energy, new infrastructure, air logistics, and cross-border e-commerce).

In 2022, the Zhengzhou Airport Zone registered a GDP of 120.8 billion yuan, an industrial output value of 535.84 billion yuan, and a total import and export volume of 470.78 billion yuan, averaging an annual increase of 14 percent, 17 percent, and 10 percent respectively for a decade.