Together with the current airport in Beijing, this airport is expected to serve 45 million passengers in the first phase with four routes. By 2025, the airport is expected to serve 75 million passengers a year. The airport is located 50 km south of the center of the capital Beijing and will help relieve pressure on the current airport in the northeast of the city. This airport is currently the second largest in the world in terms of passenger volume. Previously, a new terminal worth 3.6 billion USD also opened here in 2008, before the Beijing Summer Olympics.
Beijing’s new airport project, which began in 2014 with an infrastructure investment of nearly $12 billion, is expected to continue to operate international flights, although a third, smaller domestic airport south of the city will close in the coming years. Two of China’s three major airlines, China Eastern Airlines Corp and China Southern Airlines Co, will move to the new airport when it is completed, accounting for about four-fifths of total traffic.
China's new airport is twice the size of Heathrow Terminal 5 in the UK, with a maximum distance between gates of up to 600m. Despite receiving many complaints about the size and traffic volume, engineers and architects insist that they want to create an open space for passengers arriving at the terminal. In the middle of the airport is a central area with 6 skywalks, which will help passengers navigate to the gates more easily.
