The Ambitions of China’s Daxing Airport

Beijing Daxing International Airport scheduled the first commercial flights on 25th September, which also marked the official opening of the airport. It cost 80 billion Yuan and just took more than four years to complete the project on 30th June 2019. The estimated annual passenger flow will reach 170 million and the number of aircraft movements will be 800,000 per year.

Daxing International Airport highlights are mainly focused on the following points: Firstly, this is one of the largest single-building airport terminals in the world which is set to welcome 72 million travellers a year by 2025. The unusual terminal building has five connected concourses serving four runways. The area of the airport is 700,000 square metres. Daxing Airport is ranked as top one as the new “Seven Wonders of the Modern World” by the Guardian.

Secondly, its shape style is astonishing. “Mirror” described the new airport in Beijing like coming out of science fiction movies. Daxing International Airport looks like a dramatic, sprawling starfish viewed from above. Its designer is Zaha Hadid from the United Kingdom who was brought in to add her magic to the airport.

In addition, the technology applied in this airport makes it more powerful. Beijing Daxing International Airport is equipped with a ground-source heat pump (GSHP) system. The system can extract shallow geothermal energy of 563,600 GJ each year, saving 1,736 cubic meters natural gas and cutting more than 15,800 tonnes of carbon emission around 2.5 million square meters work venue of the airport.

From 1st to 7th October, the number of passengers was 79,400, while the number of “airport visitors” reached 518,400. The number of airport visitors was 23 times more than passengers on one particular day. Most Chinese travellers prefer to go for viewing before they have a plan to travel through Daxing Airport.