The airport itself is excellent, I feel, going through some teething problems, but I felt like I was in a little version of Hong Kong once I was in there. The connections to the airport could use some work, but I have found on the both times I have been to the airport the bus to be serviceable, pretty fast into the city (I took the one to the old airport as I live in the south) and generally pleasant. Once the subway goes right into town I think it will be as pleasant of an experience travel can be.

Only problems I have found:
Restaurants weren't used to actually having customers (use the fast food outlets, the 2 other places I have tried were so slow it wasn't worth it) and when arriving late once it took 3/4 of an hour for our bags to get to the baggage carousel. Otherwise going through the airport was forgettable (exactly what you want!). The signage is also excellent I only found 1 fault "Mom-baby waiting lounge" and I was looking for them :-)

Last week had an 8:45am flight.

Subway starts at 9am. I have no idea where to catch an airport express bus. Eight taxis refused to go to the airport. After almost an hour standing on Beijing Lu took a black taxi, this dude drives slower than my mother, 120 yuan.

Flight back was delayed so I learned the subway stops running at 6:10pm.

Getting a taxi back was easy, more taxis than customers. Taxi was 87 yuan including 1o yuan toll, airport to Beichen area. Yes, he took a longer route than necessary.

Kunming imagines being a gateway for international travelers. New airport but hard to get to and from it.

World Class Airport, NOT!

Be aware that they sometimes sell more express bus tickets in XiaoXiMen than there are seats on the next bus, leading to a boarding scrum and very angry passengers screaming about who can afford to wait for the next bus and who can't. Allow enough time for missing a first bus, just in case, especially in the morning.

There is an express bus which goes to the Airport from XiaoXiMen area. The place where you can buy a ticket for the bus is very near to 西驿酒店 (West Inn). A ticket costs 25 yuan. A bus leaves every 15-25 minutes.