Beijing's new airport begins to operate, one of the largest in the world

Updated:09/25/2019 10: 05h

The new Beijing-Daxing airport, the one with the largest single terminal in the world and that has a star shape, began operating today, five days ahead of schedule, state press reported.

The president of China, Xi Jinping, declared the infrastructure inaugurated on Wednesday, whose construction began in 2015, and whose opening coincides with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, on October 1.

The first flight to use the facility was an Airbus A380 of the China Southern airline, which has covered the Beijing-Canton route (southeast of the country), the Chinese news website Sina.com reported.

With five floors and one area of ​​103 square kilometers, the Daxing airport - located 45 kilometers south of the capital - is also the first to incorporate two plants dedicated exclusively to passenger arrivals - one for domestic flights and another for international flights - as well as two others for departures. It is also the first airport in the world inhost a high speed railway station below its surface.

Speaking to the press during a guided tour last March, the project's general manager, Li Yianhua, explained that its radial design will allow it to reach any boarding gate "in six minutes" once security controls are passed.

One of the reasons that motivated the construction of this airport, according to its promoters, was to decongest the Beijing Capital International Airport, which exceeded the 100 million annual passengers for the first time in 2018.

Chinese authorities expect the new airport by 2025 receive 72 million passengers, a figure that they expect "in the long term" to increase to 100 million.

The joint investment in all its areas - terminal, high-speed station, highway and surroundings - amounts to 400,000 million yuan (59.6 billion dollars or 52.5 billion euros).

The new airport - 67 kilometers from Beijing Capital International Airport - is expected to be the nerve center of the economic zone composed of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province (northeast of the country).

Among the foreign airlines that will operate from Daxing are AeroMexico, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, Aeroflot and KLM, as well as direct flights to London from British Airways, as well as large Chinese airlines such as China Eastern and China Southern .