China’s new £9bn mega-airport in Beijing features ‘world’s biggest terminal’ that’s the equivalent of 140 football pitches
CHINA has finished building its £9 billion Beijing mega-airport, which is expected to be operational by the end of September this year.
The star of the new hub is a huge airport terminal, which is said to be the world’s biggest single terminal building.
China’s state media agency said that the construction for Beijing Daxing International Airport, located around 28.5 miles from central Beijing, completed on June 30, as planned.
Bai Henghong, director of the Beijing Daxing International Airport project, told the agency: “It is the world’s largest integrated transportation hub.
“The terminal building is also the world’s largest built with a seamless steel structure, boasting the world’s first design of double-deck departure and double-deck arrival platforms.”
The starfish-shaped terminal building has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
It covers a total area of a million square metres according to a recent report by the BBC, although the plans for the building was originally 700,000 square metres.
Arrivals and departures will have two floors each at the terminal, which splits into six arms.
There are heaps of green credentials, including a solar farm, and all of the rain water will be collected.
Beijing Daxing International Airport in numbers
- The terminal at Beijing Daxing International Airport measures 1,000,000 square metres – or around 140 average football pitches (7,140 square metres each).
- Initially there will be four runways, but there are plans for this to expand to seven in the future.
- By 2025, some 72 million passengers will travel through the airport on some 630,000 flights a year – eventually this will rise to 100 million.
- There are plans for a second terminal to be added to the airport although there are no concret plans as to when this will happen.
Technology will also be important for the hub, with facial recognition being used throughout the airport.
The same architects also designed the 80,000 square metre ground transportation building that sits below the terminal.
This will link the terminal to high speed trains as well as metro to central Beijing.
Beijing Daxing Airport is expected to be operational from September 30.
Before that happens, there will be 787 tests, of which six are major test runs.
Around 500 flights and expected to take part in these tests, and there will be simulations of 52,000 passenger journeys to iron out any issues.
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