Startling numbers about Beijing’s new Daxing Airport

LAHORE: Situated 50 kilometres south of the city centre, Beijing's new Daxing Airport will officially begin operations on September 30, 2019. The eight-runway facility is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025, besides accommodating 620,000 flights and handling two million tonnes of cargo.

Numerous global publications have reported different numbers as far as the cost of this airport is concerned, and these figures range from US$11.2 billion and $13 billion. According to China's Xinhua News agency, with the construction of this new facility, the passenger traffic load on the existing Beijing Capital International Airport and the Beijing Nanyuan Airport is expected to be reduced to 82 million annually.

The Beijing Capital International Airport had alone handled over 100 million passengers last year, the world's second busiest airport in passenger traffic. Having 268 parking bays and a 700,000 square meter terminal area, the airport is expected to be the world's largest airport upon completion.

Currently, Beijing has two airports that serve commercial flights-the Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Nanyuan Airport. (Reference: China Daily and South China Morning Post)

On November 24, 2018, the "New York Times" had reported: "Rising out of the farmlands of southern Beijing in a web of concrete, rebar and glass, one of the world's largest airports is preparing to open after just five years of construction - a striking contrast to the infrastructure travails of far richer places. The golden, starfish-shaped terminal designed by the Iraqi-British star architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016, is billed as the world's largest at 7.5 million square feet (700,000 square meters) but promises short walking distances despite its size."

The prestigious American media house had added: "By 2025, the airport will be able to serve 72 million passengers a year. That, along with the existing Beijing Capital International Airport's annual capacity of 96 million passengers, would make Beijing one of the world's busiest city airport systems, rivaling for top spot the 170 million carried by London's six airports, based on 2017 figures. Ultimately, Daxing is expected to handle 100 million passengers a year."