The new Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to be ready in a few days, with operations expected to officially start on 30 September, the eve of the anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
Commissioned in 2014, the project lies some 46 kilometers south of downtown Beijing, 26 km from downtown Langfang in Hebei, 55 km from Xiongan New Area, and 67 km from the existing Beijing Capital International Airport, and is expected to serve as the airport hub for North China.
With an estimated cost of 80 billion yuan (11.5 billion US dollars), the DIA boasts of a 700,000 square-metre terminal building designed by the legendary Zaha Hadid, with four runways.
Once it begins operations in September, the Beijing Daxing International Airport will become the world’s largest airport, with the first phase targeting 72 million passengers per year, 20 million metric tonnes of cargo and mail, and 620,000 aircraft movements by the year 2025.
By 2040, the hub will be expected to have expanded to eight runways including one for military use, and will be able to accommodate 100 million passengers annually – which, according to its designers, will make it the world’s largest single terminal in terms of traveler capacity.
The airport will be served by state-of-the-art self-driving trains operating on the subway line connecting to downtown Beijing. The trains begun trials earlier this month in readiness for the September launch.
The line will be part of an integrated transport network serving the Beijing Daxing International Airport, including subways, expressways, intercity rail and high-speed rail.
The new airport also has advanced Chinese-designed radar systems that offer faster and more accurate weather forecasts. The systems only take one minute to complete a scan while previous radars took around six. According to its developers, the radar can detect dangerous weather, such as thunderstorms and heavy wind faster and more accurately.
Beijing Daxing International Airport was designed to meet China’s surging air service demand and relieve the tight flight pressure on Beijing Capital International Airport, whose annual passenger throughput exceeded 100 million in 2018.
Nine passenger airline companies will be settled in the new airport. These airline companies are China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines, China United Airlines, Hebei Airlines, Spring Airlines, Okay Airways, Juneyao Airlines and Donghai Airlines. In addition, one cargo airline company, China Postal Airlines, will also be assigned to this airport.
The construction of the new airport was necessitated by the increasing demand for aviation services across China.
Air transport in China continues to grow as living standards increase along with peoples’ desire to travel.
Air travel in China is expected to surpass the U.S. to become the world’s biggest aviation market by the mid-2020s, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Beijing Daxing International Airport begun test flights in May and is now ready to handle commercial flights.
As Chinese citizens celebrate the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, they also have another reason to celebrate, as the Beijing Daxing International Airport begins operations, marking a new phase in the country’s aviation sector.
