The airport is located on the border of
Beijing and
Langfang,
Hebei. It has been nicknamed "the
starfish".[5] It was completed on June 30, 2019, and began operations on September 26, 2019.[6][7][8][9] Beijing Daxing covers an expanse of 2,679
hectares (6,620
acres) and has four civilian runways and one military runway.[10]
After almost five years of construction, the
CN¥ 80 billion (US$11.4 billion)[13][14] facility features a 700,000 m2 (7,500,000 sq ft)
terminal, the world's largest single-building airport terminal,[15][16][17][18][19] and sits on 47 km2 (18 sq mi) of land. The airport won awards for best hygiene measures and best in size and region in 2020, and both awards plus Voice of the Customer in 2021 by
Airports Council International.[20][21]
Early media reports in September 2011 suggested that there could be up to nine runways at the new airport: eight runways for civil aviation plus one runway dedicated to military usage.[25][26][27][28] 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.[29]
Approval for construction
Official approval for construction by National Development and Reform Commission on December 22, 2014.[30][31] 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[32] 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.[22][33]
Design and contractors
The airport's master plan was prepared by NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants)[34] and will feature a ground transportation hub providing the airport with public transportation links to high-speed rail, metro, expressways, Beijing Airport Bus routes, local buses and inter-airport transportation system.[35] The terminal building was designed by Iraqi-British architects
Zaha Hadid Architects,[36][37] French planners
ADPI[38] and partners, and executed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD). It consists of a central hub with six curved spokes.[39] The façade was designed by XinShan Curtainwall and Beijing Institute of Architectural Design.
Arup was subcontracted by Beijing Institute of Architectural Design as the fire engineering consultant,[40] while China IPPR International Engineering was responsible for security system and baggage system designs.[41]BuroHappold Engineering, as part of the consortium, worked with the architects to integrate engineering solutions into the design of the airport.[40]
Hong Kong design studio Lead 8 was appointed as lead designer of the integrated service building (the sixth 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 childcare and nursery, hybrid online retail and dining, and a showroom for companies.[42]
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.[41]
Beijing TsingHua TonHeng Urban Planning and Design Institute, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Dtree, Lea-Elliot, Lighting Design Studio, and East Sign Design & Engineering were also involved in the project.[41]
Suppliers include Xsight Systems, T-Systems, Schindler, Thales, Beijing EasySky Technology and Oasys.[41]
Construction
Construction of the airport began on December 26, 2014,[43] and was led by chief engineer Guo Yanchi.[44] By March 2017, the terminal had its concrete structure capped.[45] 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$17
bn), with other projects in the periphery costing CN¥330bn (US$46.2bn), giving a total cost of CN¥450bn (US$63bn).[40]
Upon opening of the Daxing Airport,
Beijing Nanyuan Airport, the oldest airport in China, closed on the same day. A military airfield will coexist in Daxing, as was the case in Nanyuan.
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.[55] 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 flights at Beijing Capital Airport.[56]
SkyTeam members are slowly moving services to Daxing.
XiamenAir has relocated their routes to Daxing. In June 2020,
Aeroflot ended flights from Capital in favor of Daxing. Similarly,
China Eastern Airlines has shifted all of its operations to Daxing except for flights to Shanghai-Honqiao. However, their plan to launch new international routes to Paris and Tokyo at the end of March 2020 have not been realised because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore,
Delta Air Lines announced their intention to move at the end of April 2020, but are currently delayed by the slow reopening of
China-US flight allocations.
The
Oneworld alliance announced in February 2019, that its member airlines were considering a formal co-location scheme at Daxing,[57] 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.[58]S7 Airlines moved two of its five Russian destinations to Daxing from Capital on March 29, 2020 while suspending the other three.
Qatar Airways announced its intention to move to Daxing between June and August 2020 and is currently flying out of the airport.[59]Royal Air Maroc which joined the alliance on 1 April 2020 already operates out of Daxing. However,
Cathay Pacific has decided to maintain its flights at Capital.[60]Finnair, which flew from Helsinki-to-Daxing while retaining a daily flight to Capital, has suspended both routes because of Russian airspace bans as a result of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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 three-weekly flight to Capital.
Lufthansa and
Swiss International Air Lines initially announced in the same month that they would move their Frankfurt-Beijing and Zurich-Beijing flights from Capital to Daxing at the end of March 2020. However, these plans have not yet materialize because of the lingering effects on Chinese aviation brought by the
COVID-19 pandemic.[61]
On October 25, 2020, China Southern Airlines transferred all its Beijing flights to Daxing Airport.[62]
Airport facilities
The first phase of the airport project is designed with a target of 72 million passengers,[63] 2 million tons of cargo and mail,[63] and 620,000 aircraft movements in the long term.
Technological features of the airport include radio frequency identification for baggage tracking, geothermal heat pumps for heating and cooling, and facial recognition security access.[64]: 206
The
Daxing Airport Express of the
Beijing Subway connects the airport to the urban area of Beijing and began operation on September 26, 2019.[124] The line links
Caoqiao station on
Line 10 to the airport. Initially, only the Caoqiao-to-airport segment was opened, with a northern extension to
Lize Shangwuqu scheduled to begin construction in 2020[125] and finish in 2022.[126] A southern extension of the line, also known as
Line R1 of Xiong'an Rail Transit [
zh] (or Xiong'an to Daxing Airport Express), from Daxing Airport to Xiong'an Terminal is under construction.[127][128]
In the long term planning of the Beijing Subway,
Line 20 (Line R4) of the Beijing Subway is planned to terminate at the new airport.[129]
Statistics
Below is the passenger data and development for Beijing Daxing International Airport as of year 2022:
Passenger statistics at Beijing Daxing International Airport
^
ab北京大兴国际机场首个商业航班降落,搭载149名旅客 [The first commercial flight of Beijing Daxing International Airport landed with 149 passengers]. September 26, 2019.
Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
^大兴机场通航,将给京津冀带来什么? [What will Daxing Airport bring to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei?]. NBD.com. September 25, 2019.
Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
^首都新机场跑道呈三纵一横分布 规划7条跑道 [Capital New Airport Runways Distributed As Three Vertical One Horizontal, 7 Runways Planned] (in Chinese). news.carnoc.com.
Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
^
ab除了地铁新机场线,未来还有这些轨道线通往大兴机场. June 16, 2019.
Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019. ...京雄城际、新机场线、R4线、预留轨道线、城际铁路联络线五线并设的大兴国际机场综合交通中心,使高铁、地铁与航站楼合一
^新机场又一交通动脉下月开工!与廊涿城际接驳,京南楼市利好 [The new airport's traffic artery will start next month! Connection with Langzhuo (Langfang-Zhuozhou) intercity railway, Beijing property market is good]. www.sohu.com. May 5, 2018. Archived from
the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
^""十四五"京津间将建成五条高铁城际". People's Daily (in Chinese). January 7, 2022. Archived from
the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022. 通往大兴机场的津兴城际铁路将于明年上半年建成通车 [The "Tianxing" intercity railway leading to Daxing Airport will be opened in the first half of next year]
^北京新机场航站楼2019年7月建成 8分抵最远登机口-新华网 [Beijing's New Airport Terminal Building to Finish Construction in July 2019, 8 Minutes to Farthest Boarding Gate - Xinhua Net]. www.xinhuanet.com. Archived from
the original on November 13, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2018.