Beijing opens huge Daxing airport

An aerial view of Beijing Daxing International Airport. [Xinhua]

A futuristic new airport in Beijing, which is expected to become one of the busiest in the world, was opened by President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.

Xi declared the starfish-shaped airport open in brief remarks at a ceremony inside the huge terminal, days before the country holds a grand celebration to mark 70 years of Communist rule.

Located 46 kilometers (29 miles) south of Tiananmen Square, the Beijing Daxing International Airport will operate at full capacity in 2040, with eight runways and the potential to receive 100 million passengers per year.

The single-terminal airport is seen as a fitting embodiment of the “Chinese dream” Xi has offered his fellow citizens.

At 700,000 square meters (173 acres), about the size of 100 football pitches, the new structure will be one of the world’s largest airport terminals.

Underneath the terminal is a train station and metro line that will allow travelers to reach the city center in 20 or so minutes.

The project costs 120-billion yuan ($17.5 billion), or 400 billion if rail and road links are included.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines will take the lead, seeing off flights at 3:45 pm to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport, respectively, according to the State-owned self-service flight app Umetrip.

China Southern will have 40 percent of airport slots at Daxing, followed by China Eastern with 30 percent and other airlines sharing the remainder, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

China United Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Eastern, will be the first airline to transfer its operations to Daxing from its current headquarters at Beijing Nanyuan Airport. It will operate over 130 daily flights from the new airport, serving a network of 60 routes. On Tuesday, the airline moved an empty plane to Daxing from Nanyuan. (With a report from China Daily)