Explainer | What to know about the hi-tech features at Beijing’s new Daxing International Airport

Travellers can expect some of the most advanced technologies, including 5G, to help make their experience at the airport hassle-free

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An aerial view of the new Beijing Daxing International Airport shows the distinctive starfish layout of its main terminal, the world’s largest, built on a site that takes up 7.5 million square feet (695,000 square metres). Photo: AP

Sarah Daiin BeijingandMinghe Huin Beijing

Published: 7:00am, 26 Sep 2019Updated: 7:14am, 26 Sep 2019

The newly inaugurated Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to eventually become one of the world’s busiest, as its operations relieve pressure on the Chinese capital’s overcrowded main aviation hub.

On Wednesday, the initial batch of travellers who used the new airport – located about 65km south of Beijing Capital International Airport – were also the first to experience how the latest technologies adopted by this facility may set it apart from other second long-haul international airports in Tokyo, London, Paris and New York.

Ultra-fast 5G mobile services, advanced facial recognition and smart robotics are some of the hi-tech features built in the first airport designed by legendary Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The late architect, who died in 2016 before she was able to see the project to fruition, was renowned for her monumental, experimental and aggressively curvilinear work.

While the advanced technologies adopted by Beijing Daxing International Airport may follow the spirit behind Hadid’s design, time will tell if the new facility would join Singapore’s Changi and Qatar’s Hamad in the rankings of the world’s top airports.

The mobile infrastructure at the Beijing Daxing International Airport supports 5G technology, which provides peak data rates up to 100 times faster than 4G. Photo: Reuters

Here are three of the hi-tech features now deployed at Beijing’s new airport: