Beijing’s sea change: main building work done on starfish-shaped mega airport

It will be world’s largest single-terminal airport – and could become the busiest by passenger traffic

Major construction has been completed and it is expected to open its doors in September, according to state media

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The airport’s starfish-shaped terminal spans 700,000 square metres, but it’s designed to keep walking to a minimum. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:48pm, 30 Jun 2019Updated: 12:09pm, 2 Jul 2019

Main construction work on Beijing’s starfish-shaped new mega airport was completed on Sunday, state media reported, as it enters final preparations to open its doors in September – in time for the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China on October 1.

Designed by ADP Ingénierie and the late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, the Beijing Daxing International Airport is located in the south of the capital and will be the world’s largest single-terminal airport, with a total investment of about 120 billion yuan (US$17.47 billion).

Its futuristic, golden terminal spans 700,000 square metres (7.5 million sq ft), though it is designed to keep walking to a minimum.

It is expected to have seven runways eventually and will be able to handle 45 million passengers a year by 2021 – and 72 million by 2025.

“In the long run, it will be able to accommodate 880,000 flights and 100 million passengers per year,” Yuan Hongwei, director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission’s investment planning unit, told state broadcaster CCTV.

That would mean it could eventually handle more passengers in a year than the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The US airport in Atlanta, Georgia is at present the world’s busiest by passenger traffic – it can accommodate more than 100 million passengers a year, but across two terminals.