First commercial flights from Beijing's new $63 billion airport take off

By Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo

 

A worker walks inside the terminal hall of the Beijing Daxing International Airport under construction in Daxing district, Beijing, China June 19, 2019. Yin Liqin/CNS via REUTERS

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - The first commercial flights from Beijing's new Daxing International airport took off on Wednesday - an airport that cost $63 billion (50.7 billion pounds) to build, is roughly the size of 100 football fields and is expected to become one of the world's busiest.

 

Shaped like a phoenix - though to some observers it is more reminiscent of a starfish - the airport was designed by famed Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid. It boasts four runways and is expected to handle up to 72 million passengers a year by 2025, eventually reaching 100 million.

 

It was hailed as "a new powerful source of national development" at a ceremony overseen by President Xi Jinping, just days ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

 

A China Southern Airlines Airbus A380 flight to Guangzhou in the country's south was the first to fly out.

 

China is forecast to overtake the United States as the world's largest aviation market by 2022. Daxing, located south of Beijing, will help ease pressure on Capital International Airport in the city's northeast, where capacity constraints often cause flight delays.

 

The new airport is, however, about 46 km (29 miles) away from central Beijing, almost twice the distance of Capital airport. An express train from Daxing will take about 20 minutes to reach the south of Beijing.

 

Daxing will also accommodate passengers from the neighbouring areas of Hebei and Tianjin, linked by a sprawling network of trains, subways and public buses.

 

GRAPHIC: Map of Beijing's commercial airports: https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-AIRPORT/0100B2CD1FY/Beijing-Airport.jpg

 

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines will be the main domestic carriers at Daxing. About 50 foreign airlines, including British Airways and Finnair, plan to move all or part of their operations in the next few quarters.

 

The relocation of all airlines is to due to be completed by the winter of 2021.

 

With the opening of Daxing, Beijing Nanyuan Airport, China's oldest airport, will cease operations from Thursday.

 

GRAPHIC: The 20 busiest airports in the world: https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-AIRPORT/0100B2CE1G0/Airport-traffic.jpg

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-25

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Good for them looks awesome.

Sure gives LAX a run for its money......

it will be uncovered in 10000 years, and the future archeologists will again 'marvel' and wonder? 

11 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Good for them looks awesome.

Sure gives LAX a run for its money......

LAX sure needs some "surgery" to be brought to the context, it's an older airport

12 hours ago, Mavideol said:

LAX sure needs some "surgery" to be brought to the context, it's an older airport

Although this isnt a thread about LAX or airports in general .

(Yet another topic that gets compared to the USA)

31 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

LAX sure needs some "surgery" to be brought to the context, it's an older airport

lax really sucks on just driving to it either for departures or for picking up arrivals.  The roads all jam up and literally bottle neck down to two lanes as you get into the terminal area.  Just went in and out of there and it took 2 hours from the 105 exit to get to  Bradley terminal.  Brutal and this was Tuesday night at 10 PM.

The numbers are mind numbing. 100 million passenger per day, in- and out-bound is still 150,000 souls taking to the skies ever day or 100 ever minute, day and night.

 

Hopefully the Chinese tourist will one day bring democracy back home.

Edited September 25, 20196 yr by ExpatOilWorker

3 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The numbers are mind numbing. 100 million passenger per day, in- and out-bound is still 150,000 souls taking to the skies ever day or 100 ever minute, day and night.

 

Hopefully the Chinese tourist will one day bring democracy back home.

Not from Thailand, the most popular foreign destination for Chinese travelers in 2017.

https://www.traveller.com.au/top-countries-for-chinese-tourists-the-impact-of-chinas-tourism-on-the-globe-h0zuga

Quote:-

"A China Southern Airlines Airbus A380 flight to Guangzhou in the country's south was the first to fly out"

At least it was an Airbus and not a Boeing - too many ghosts for the Chinese! 

 

 

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It boasts four runways and is expected to handle up to 72 million passengers a year by 2025

And to think that in 2018 Suvarnabhumi handled 63.4 million passengers with only two runways!

https://www.airportthai.co.th/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Annual-Airport-2018.pdf

Albeit a third runway budgeted in circa 2011 is now being considered by the Prayut government.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Gee, I was sure Suvarnabhumi Airport would have been on the list.  

❤️❤️

 

 

18 hours ago, sanemax said:

Although this isnt a thread about LAX or airports in general .

(Yet another topic that gets compared to the USA)

did you read the topic's header, does it say Beijing AIRPORT ? maybe a new pair of glasses will do or maybe you have nothing else to "pick" on

On 9/25/2019 at 5:29 PM, snoop1130 said:

It boasts four runways and is expected to handle up to 72 million passengers a year by 2025, eventually reaching 100 million.

 

It was hailed as "a new powerful source of national development" at a ceremony overseen by President Xi Jinping, just days ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Has anybody told Greta Thunberg about this yet?

12 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

The numbers are mind numbing. 100 million passenger per day, in- and out-bound is still 150,000 souls taking to the skies ever day or 100 ever minute, day and night.

.. per year

 

The VAE (Dubai) have postponed their plans to expand the "Dubai World-Central International Airport" (currently little used) to 250 Million (a quarter billion!).

https://simpleflying.com/dubai-world-city-halted/

 

 

doomsday draws nearer, how  much longer can this  planet  support  this amount of <deleted>? I 'll be long gone by then thankfully and with no  kids.

China is building airports right and left. Given the quantity of noxious fumes the country is already pumping out, it seems they are intent on trashing the planet single-handed.