The opening of the new Beijing Daxing International Airport in September has solidified China’s position as one of the world’s biggest aviation markets. Built at a cost USD 13 billion, the state-of-the-art airport, who located in a southern part of Beijing, took five years to complete. 


The Daxing Airport will bolster the increasing air traffic in the capital city and alleviate some of the pressure from Beijing Capital International Airport, which was built in 2008; the airport has struggled to accommodate the growing number of passengers each year. Last year alone, Beijing Capital exceeded the 100 million passenger mark, effectively making it the second busiest airport in the world after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the US. 


The New Daxing Airport is expected to serve 45 million passengers annually over the course of the next two years, eventually increasing to 72 million by 2025. With plans for a total of seven runways, the airport will accommodate over 600,000 flights and 100 million passengers per annum.


To ensure Daxing Airport is up to the task of handling a huge volume of passengers, the airport is equipped with a 700,000 sqm terminal – currently the largest, single structure airport concourse in the world. The airport boasts the latest smart technology to ensure smooth and efficient operations. This includes the use of facial recognition in all its secure channels, self-service check-in kiosks and baggage drop machines, as well as radio-frequency identification (RFID) baggage tracking systems for real-time baggage tracking. 


The opening of the Daxing Airport is timely as China is experiencing a surge of annual passenger traffic. According to China’s Civil Aviation Administration, the volume of passengers reached 1.26 billion last year, marking a 10.2 per cent increase from 2017. Based on its trajectory, the International Air Transport Association expects China to surpass the US as the world’s largest aviation market by 2022.