A shining starfish of unbelievable proportions
- Facts
The “Beijing New International Airport” made a truly perfect landing at its formal opening on September 26, 2019, by President Xi Jinping after only four years of construction. By 2040, an annual turnover of 100 million passengers and 4 million tons of freight are planned. Sound impressive? Don’t forget that – in a sense – this is just a “relief airport”.
100 million passengers by 2040
Right from the start, neither money nor effort was spared in creating the airport. 16,000 people were resettled and twenty former villages were literally leveled to make space for the building and its heavenly aura. The work was completed in shifts under intense pressure. The result is an impressive structure made of 200,000 cubic meters of steel and 100,000 cubic meters of concrete. The main terminal has a ground area of 700,000 m2 with four landing strips, 186 boarding gates, 422 check-in counters, 3,000 displays for flight information, 63 baggage carousels and an annual passenger capacity of 45 million. By 2025, this number will already be up to 72 million passengers, with a long-term aim of a capacity of 100 million. In its final state, a total of eight terminals are planned, compared with the current four, and four million tons of air freight should pass through the airport every year. An expansion to seven landing strips is also planned, which should handle 620,000 departures and arrivals per year. 300 take-offs and landings per hour are already possible.
20 minutes to the center of Beijing
Situated roughly 46 km south of the city center, the three-story airport offers passengers a seamless continuation of their journey into the city in just 20 minutes thanks to an extremely modern rapid transit terminal on the lower level. A dedicated long-distance train station connected to a high-speed rail line also enables smooth arrival and departure by train. This allows the airport to be reached in just 3 hours by rail from roughly 30 major Chinese cities. In this regard, it hardly seems a surprise that a dedicated subway line was also inaugurated on opening day. Plus: A new expressway heading to the city center was also built, of course.
The mammoth construction and infrastructure project is clearly a long-term investment in China’s local and long-distance transportation and in the region around Beijing. In any case, the recently completed airport, with all its superlatives, was actually built “only” to relieve the already existing mega-airport to the northeast, the “Beijing Capital International Airport”. For perspective: Beijing Capital International Airport is considered Asia’s largest airport. In other words, everything is a bit bigger in the ever-ambitious Middle Kingdom, and plans are even being circulated for an eighth landing strip after the year 2040. The goal? 130 million passengers!
Lots of traffic in the air and on the ground
Largest airports by annual passenger numbers
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (USA): 107 million passengers
- Beijing Capital International Airport (People’s Republic of China): 100 million passengers
- Dubai International Airport (United Arab Emirates): 90 million passengers
Largest airports by annual passenger numbers in Europe
- London Heathrow Airport (UK): 80 million passengers
- Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle (France): 69.5 million passengers
- Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Netherlands): 68 million passengers
cargo-partner in China
cargo-partner has been represented in China since 2004 and currently operates 16 offices with 284 employees across the country. cargo-partner in China offers a comprehensive range of air, sea, land transport, warehousing and info-logistics solutions for various industries. With its rail transport solutions via the New Silk Road, the company provides weekly consolidation services with full coverage throughout Europe and China.
How the automotive industry will transform
- Insights
With several rapidly developing digital technologies and profound research in the field of acceleration, mobility behavior will change constantly. Are you ready for this?
“Samba Pa Ti”
- Facts
It is a party that breaks all records and the world's largest carnival. We took a look at the celebrations and ventured a glimpse behind the scenes of Brazil's transport industry.
