This archive report was first published on 28 September 2019.
On Wednesday, September 25, 2019, China's Daxing International Airport officially opened its doors, marking a significant milestone in the country's aviation history. The ceremony was presided over by President Xi Jinping.
The airport's terminal, spanning 700,000 square meters, is designed to handle 72 million passengers and 2 million tons of cargo annually by 2025. This will help alleviate congestion at Beijing Capital International Airport, which often faces capacity constraints, leading to issues like flight delays.
According to airport officials, the terminal can accommodate 300 takeoffs and landings every hour, making it a highly efficient facility.
Some of the special design features of the airport include customer service robots, infrared temperature gauges, facial recognition check-ins that detect radioactive materials, and radio frequency identification devices for baggage tracking.
The construction of the airport, which took less than five years, cost $17 billion and created over 40,000 direct and indirect jobs at its peak.
China Southern Airlines was the first to operate a commercial flight from the airport, with six more flights taking off later for Shanghai and other destinations. Other carriers set to move to Daxing International Airport include British Airways, China Eastern, Finnair, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, Royal Maroc, and China Southern.
