*BEIJING – Beijing is set to open an eye-catching multi-billion dollarairport resembling a massive shining starfish, to accommodate soaring airtraffic in China and celebrate the Communist government’s 70th anniversaryin power.*
Work on the Beijing Daxing International Airport officially ended onschedule Sunday, ready for a September 30 inauguration — on the eve of theanniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic on October 1, 1949by Mao Zedong.
Celebrations of that event will see President Xi Jinping reviewing a hugemilitary parade through the centre of Beijing, with the opening of thefuturistic hub a fitting embodiment of the “Chinese dream” he has offeredhis fellow citizens.
Located 46 kilometres south of Tiananmen square, the new airport willoperate at full capacity in 2025, with four runways and the potential toreceive 72 million passengers per year.
*Biggest aviation market*
By 2040 the hub is expected to have expanded to eight runways including onefor military use, and will be able to welcome 100 million passengers peryear — which will make it the world’s largest single terminal in terms oftraveller capacity, according to its designers.
Atlanta airport, in the United States, can currently receive more than ahundred million passengers, but across two terminals.
The current Beijing Daxing International Airport — the world’s secondlargest — is already overflowing, with just over 100 million passengersannually.
Air transport is booming in China as living standards increase along withpeoples’ desire to travel. Indeed, it will pass the US to become theworld’s biggest aviation market by the mid-2020s, according to theInternational Air Transport Association.
The country will see 1.6 billion plane journeys each year from 2037 — abillion more than in 2017, the organisation estimates.
China’s capital — with its 21 million people — expects to welcome 170million passengers in 2025, split between the two airports.
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*100 football pitches*
At 700,000 square metres — about the size of a hundred football pitches —the new structure will be one of the world’s largest airport terminals.
The building was designed by Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who died in2016, in conjunction with the engineering subsidiary of Aeroports de Paris.
Inside, it stands out for its flowing, curved lines and use of light thatfilters down to the lowest levels of the building through openings in theroof.
Underneath the terminal is a train station and metro line that will allowtravellers to reach the city centre in 20 or so minutes.
The project cost 120 billion yuan ($17.5 billion), or 400 billion if railand road links are included.
State television channel CCTV reported that the SkyTeam alliance, whichincludes Delta Air France and KLM, will move over to the new airport along,along with its partner Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.
The third largest Chinese airline, Air China, is expected to keep flyingthe bulk of its flights from Beijing Capital International Airport. -APP/AFP
