Beijing Daxing International Airport

Beijing Daxing International Airport, located on the border of Beijing and

Langfang, Hebei Province, is Beijing's second international airport. The

name of the airport was announced on September 14, 2018. It has been

nicknamed "starfish". The terminal building is largest single-structure

airport terminals in the world, with an area of more than 700,000 m2

(7,500,000 sq ft). It was completed on June 30, 2019. The opening

ceremony for the airport was held on September 25, 2019, and the airport

opened to the public on September 26, 2019. The first commercial flight,

China United Airlines KN5302 from Ordos, landed at Beijing Daxing at

10:12 (UTC+8), September 26, 2019.

The airport is 46 kilometres (29 mi) south of Tiananmen Square, 26

kilometres (16 mi) west of downtown Langfang, 50 kilometres (31 mi)

northeast of Xiong'an New Area, and 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of

Beijing Capital International Airport, and is expected to serve Beijing,

Tianjin, and Hebei. It serves as a hub for SkyTeam alliance airlines and

some Oneworld members, while Star Alliance members will stay at

Beijing Capital International Airport (with the exception of LOT Polish

Airlines, which will serve both airports). Hainan Airlines, which

accounted for 10% of Beijing Capital International's passenger seat

capacity in 2016, but is not part of any major alliance, remains at Capital

Airport.
After almost five years of construction, the CN¥ 80 billion (US$11.4

billion) facility features a 700,000 m2 (7,500,000 sq ft) terminal and sits

on 47 km2 (18 sq mi) of land, making it the world's largest single-

building airport terminal.

Development history

A second airport for Beijing was proposed in 2008. By 2012, the existing

Beijing Capital International Airport was running at near its full design

capacity.

Initial proposals

Early media reports during September 2011 suggested that there could be

up to 9 runways at the new airport: 8 runways for civil aviation plus one

runway dedicated to military usage. It would replace Beijing Capital

International Airport (which had 83 million passengers in 2013, second

most in the world) as the main airport of Beijing, and be the largest in

China. The airport was planned to be able to handle 120 to 200 million

passengers a year, which, if capacity were fully used, would make it the

world's busiest airport by passenger traffic, surpassing Hartsfield–Jackson

Atlanta International Airport by far.

Official approval for construction by National Development and Reform

Commission on December 22, 2014. It called for an airport to be

constructed in the southern part of Daxing District of Beijing, along the

border of Beijing and Hebei Province. No design or plans were released

due to ongoing negotiations. It was stated that it would consist of 7

runways, 6 for civilian use and 1 for military purposes. Construction has

been completed as of September 2019 with a capacity of handling 75

million passengers by 2025. The cost of construction was initially

estimated to be at least 70 billion RMB (US$11.2 billion), including the

37 km (23 mi) Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway (Beijing section), to

Beijing West railway station.

Design & Contractors

The airport's master plan was prepared by NACO (Netherlands Airport

Consultants) and will feature a ground transportation centre providing the

airport with public transportation links to high-speed rail, metro,

expressways, Beijing Airport Bus routes, local buses and inter-airport

transportation system. The terminal building was designed by British

architects Zaha Hadid Architects, French planners ADPI and partners, and

executed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD). It

consists of a central hub with six curved spokes. The facade was designed
by XinShan Curtainwall and Beijing Institute of Architectural Design.

Arup (a British firm) was subcontracted by Beijing Institute of

Architectural Design as the fire engineering consultant, while China IPPR

International Engineering was responsible for security system and

baggage system designs. BuroHappold Engineering (a British firm), as

part of the consortium, worked with the architects to integrate

engineering solutions into the design of the airport.

Hong Kong design studio Lead 8 was appointed as lead designer of the

integrated service building (the 6th pier) in 2018. The terminal, according

to Lead 8, will encompass "a purposeful design of work spaces, with

integrated retail, dining, and entertainment options for the large number

of passengers expected," with plans to incorporate interactive pet hotels, a

child care and nursery, hybrid online retail and dining, and a showroom

for companies.

Other contractors involved in the project include China Electronics

Engineering Design Institute, Civil Aviation Electronic Technology, The

Third Rail Survey and Design Institute Group Corporation (TSDI China),

Beijing City Construction Design Research General Institute and Beijing

General Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute.

Academy of Fine Arts, Dtree, Lea-Elliot, Lighting Design Studio, and

East Sign Design & Engineering were also involved in the project.

Suppliers include Xsight Systems, T-Systems, Schindler, Thales, Beijing

EasySky Technology and Oasys.

Construction

Construction of the airport began on December 26, 2014, and was led by

chief engineer Guo Yanchi. By March 2017, the terminal had its concrete

structure capped. On January 23, 2019, the first flight inspection began to

be carried out and was expected to be completed in March.

On June 30, 2019, the airport officially finished construction and was in

preparation for its September opening. The construction of the airport

itself cost CN¥120bn (approximately US$17bn), with other projects in

the periphery costing CN¥330bn (US$46.2bn), giving a total cost of

CN¥450bn (US$63bn).

Opening

The airport opened on 25 September 2019—just six days before the 70th

anniversary of the People's Republic of China—in a ceremony attended

Xi Jinping. Inaugural flights from seven Chinese airlines began later in

the afternoon, although flights operating out of the airport on the day

were member-only, with the first official flight out of the airport an

Airbus A380 operated by China Southern Airlines. Flights for the public

began the following day on 26 September 2019. The first commercial

flight landed at Beijing Daxing at 10:12 (UTC+8), September 26, 2019.

The airport serves as the hub for China United Airlines immediately after

its opening and all their services have been relocated to Beijing Daxing.

Others, such as China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, will

also relocate.

Upon opening of the Daxing Airport, Beijing Nanyuan Airport, the oldest

airport in China, closed on the same day. A military airfield will co-exist

in Daxing, as was the case in Nanyuan.

Service development

It was initially planned for airlines of the SkyTeam alliance to be

relocated to the new airport, while Star Alliance airlines would remain at

Capital, effectively making both airports hubs. This was confirmed in

2016, when the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced that

along with other SkyTeam airlines would move to the new airport, while

Air China and other Star Alliance carriers would remain at Capital. China

Southern, China Eastern and Beijing Capital Airlines' intentions to move

to Daxing were confirmed by a Xinhua report in December 2017.

Ten passenger airlines (China Southern Airlines, China United Airlines,

Shanghai Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines, Hebei Airlines, Spring

Airlines, Okay Airways, Juneyao Airlines, XiamenAir and Donghai

Airlines) and one cargo airline (China Postal Airlines) signed agreements

with the Capital Airport Group to enter the new airport.

CAAC required each Mainland Chinese airline (other than China Postal

Airlines) to serve only one Beijing-area airport following the opening of

Daxing, but allowed foreign airlines (including Hong Kong, Macau and

Taiwan-based airlines) to operate from both airports if they wished to do

so. China Eastern Group and China Southern Group were each allocated

40% of landing slots with the remaining 20% for smaller Mainland China

and international airlines. However, on 1 May 2019, this plan was

changed by CAAC, with China Eastern Group relinquishing 10% of its

allocated slots (to give it 30% of slots) to Air China Group in exchange

for the China Eastern group continuing to operate its Shanghai-Beijing

SkyTeam members are slowly moving services to Daxing. China Eastern

Airlines has moved some select domestic destinations to Daxing whilst

retaining a large presence at Capital. It will launch new international

routes to Paris and Tokyo at the end of March 2020. Similarly XiamenAir

will move it hub routes to Fuzhou and Xiamen at the end of March 2020

whilst retaining other domestic destination at Capital. Their global

partners Delta Air Lines will supposedly move at the end of April and

Aeroflot will move at the beginning of June.

The OneWorld alliance announced in February 2019, that its member

airlines were considering a formal co-location scheme at Daxing,

particularly as many of them, now have codeshare partnerships with

China Southern. Alliance members, British Airways and Malaysia

Airlines moved their London-Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur to Beijing

flights to Daxing whilst Finnair flies from Helsinki-to-Daxing as well as

retaining a daily flight to Capital. S7 Airlines will move all its flights

covering 5 Russian destinations to Daxing from Capital on 29 March

2020. Qatar Airways has also announced its intention to move to Daxing

in Summer 2020 and American Airlines has also indicated plans to

relocate flights from Capital to Daxing due to its close partnership with
China Southern. Royal Air Maroc which joined the alliance on 1 April

2020 already operates out of Daxing. Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon

reportedly intend to stay at Capital

Some foreign Star Alliance airlines are joining full member Air China and

connecting partner Juneyao at Daxing. In January 2020, LOT Polish

launched a 4-weekly flight from Warsaw, complementing its 3-weekly

flight to Capital. Also in January 2020, Swiss International Air Lines

announced that they will move their Zurich-Beijing flights from Capital

to Daxing at the end of March 2020.

Airport facilities

The first phase of the airport project is designed with a target of 72

million passengers, 2 million tons of cargo and mail, and 620,000 aircraft

movements in the long term.

Statistics

Below is the passenger data and development for Beijing Daxing

International Airport for the years 2019:

Total Passenger
Year
passenger % change

20191 3,138,000
Passenger statistics at Beijing Daxing International Airport

Total Passenger
Year
passenger % change