Beijing New International Airport

Beijing Daxing International Airport (Chinese: 北京大兴国际机场; pinyin: Běijīng Dàxīng Guójì Jīchǎng) (IATA: PKX, ICAO: ZBAD) (nicknamed "starfish" by Chinese media), 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. The terminal building is one of the largest single-structure airport terminals in the world, with an area of more than 1,000,000 m2 (11,000,000 sq ft). It was completed on June 30, 2019. The opening ceremony for the airport was held on September 25, 2019. There are also member-only flights on September 25. The airport is expected to open to public with all airlines of China United Airlines moved to Beijing Daxing on September 26, 2019. Upon completion, it will serve as a major international hub airport in Northern China. There will be 4 runways, and 79 contact aircraft stands.

The airport is 46 kilometers south of Tian'anmen Square, 26 kilometers west of downtown Langfang City, 50 kilometers northeast of Xiong'an New Area, and 65 kilometers south of the existing Beijing Capital International Airport, and is expected to serve Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei. It will serve as a hub for SkyTeam alliance airlines (except China Southern Airlines who just left the Skyteam), while Star Alliance members will stay at the existing Beijing Capital International Airport. Hainan Airlines, which accounted for 10% of Beijing Capital International's passenger seat capacity in 2016, but is not part of any major alliance, will stay at the existing capital airport.

Upon opening of the new airport, Beijing Nanyuan Airport (currently solely served by China United Airlines) will be closed.

A military airfield will co-exist as was the case in Nanyuan.

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.

Approval for construction

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 estimated cost of construction is 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

The airport's master plan was designed by airport consulting firm CACC (China Airport Construction Corporation) with partners 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 and French planners ADP, and executed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD). It consists of a central hub with six curved spokes. 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 

Construction

Construction of the airport began on December 26, 2014. 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.

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 China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines 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 flights at Beijing Capital Airport.

Among Oneworld carriers, British Airways and Malaysia Airlines will move their London and Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flights to Daxing whilst Finnair has filed for flights from Helsinki to Daxing as well as retaining a daily flight to Capital. American Airlines has indicated plans to relocate flights from Capital to Daxing due to its tie-up with China Southern. Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon reportedly intend to stay at Capital. The alliance announced in February 2019, that its member airlines were considering a formal co-location scheme at Daxing.

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,[39] and 620,000 aircraft movements by 2025, with plans to handle 100 million passengers in the long term.