Beijing Capital International Airport

History

Beijing Airport was opened on 2 March 1958. The airport then consisted of one small terminal building, which still stands to this day, apparently for the use of VIPs and charter flights. On 1 January 1980, a newer, larger Terminal 1 – green in colour – opened, with docks for 10 to 12 aircraft. The terminal was larger than the one built in the 1950s, but by the mid-1990s, its size became relatively inadequate.

The first International flight to China and Beijing Capital International Airport was of Pakistan International Airlines from Islamabad.

In late 1999, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, the airport experienced a new round of expansion as Terminal 2 opened on 1 November of that year. Terminal 1 was then temporarily closed for renovation after the opening of Terminal 2. 20 September 2004 saw the opening of a renovated Terminal 1, which at that time solely handled China Southern Airlines' domestic and international flights from Beijing. Other airlines' domestic and international flights still operated in Terminal 2.

Another round of expansion started in 2007. A third runway opened on 29 October 2007, to relieve congestion on the other two runways. Terminal 3 (T3) was completed in February 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympics. This colossal expansion also included a rail link to the city-center. At its opening, the new Terminal 3 was the largest man made structure in the world in terms of area covered, and a major landmark representing Beijing as the growing and developing Chinese capital. The expansion was largely funded by a 30 billion yen loan from Japan and a 500-million-euro (USD 625 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The loan is the largest ever granted by the EIB in Asia; the agreement was signed during the eighth China-EU Summit held in September 2005.

Fresh from hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and adding its new terminal building, Beijing Capital has overtaken Tokyo Haneda to be the busiest airport in Asia based on scheduled seat capacity.

Due to limited capacity at Beijing Capital International Airport, a new airport in Daxing is being planned. The project was given final approval on 13 January 2013. Construction began in late 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2019. It is not yet clear how flights will be divided between the two airports; a possible plan is that all airlines of the SkyTeam airline alliance are to move to the new airport.

Terminals

The airport has three terminals. Terminal 1 serves the domestic routes of Hainan Airlines and its subsidiaries (while its international routes and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau flights operate from Terminal 2). Terminal 2 serves China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, SkyTeam members and other domestic and international flights. Terminal 3, the newest terminal, serves Air China, Star Alliance and Oneworld members, and some other domestic and international flights which do not operate from either Terminals 1 or 2.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1, with 60,000 m² (650,000 sq ft) of space, opened on 1 January 1980, and replaced the smaller existing terminal which had been in operation since 1958. Terminal 1 was closed for renovation from 1 November 1999 to 20 September 2004, during which all airlines operated from Terminal 2. Featuring 16 gates, it was the operational base for the domestic routes of China Southern Airlines and a few other airlines such as Xiamen Airlines and Chongqing Airlines, and was originally planned to handle domestic traffic excluding those to Hong Kong and Macau.

With the opening of Terminal 3, the terminal was closed for light refurbishment, and its airlines were moved to Terminal 2 on 20 May 2008. Terminal 1 reopened for a second time on 27 June 2008, and became the operational base for all domestic flights operated by the HNA Group including those of Hainan Airlines, Grand China Air, Beijing Capital Airlines and Tianjin Airlines, while all HNA Group's international flights as well as those to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan remain in Terminal 2.

Terminal 2

Terminal 2 opened on 1 November 1999, with a floor area of 336,000 m² (3,620,000 sq ft). This terminal was used to replace Terminal 1 while the latter was undergoing renovation, cramping all airlines despite being far bigger than Terminal 1. It can handle twenty aircraft at docks connecting directly to the terminal building. Prior to the opening of Terminal 3, all international flights (and the majority of the domestic flights) operated from this terminal. This terminal now houses China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines (all International flights including flights to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau), Skyteam, Air Koryo, and other domestic and international flights other than those operated by Air China, Shanghai Airlines, Star Alliance members and Oneworld members. A gate capable of handling the A380 (gate 21) was also built at the terminal.

Terminals 1 and 2 are linked by a public walkway that takes about 10–15 minutes to traverse. Shuttle buses connect all three terminals.

Terminal 3

Construction of Terminal 3 started on 28 March 2004, and the terminal opened in two stages. Trial operations commenced on 29 February 2008, when seven airlines including British Airways, El Al Israel Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Shandong Airlines and Sichuan Airlines moved into the terminal. Twenty other airlines followed when the terminal became fully operational on 26 March 2008. Currently, it mainly houses Air China, Oneworld, Star Alliance, and other domestic and international flights which are not operated from Terminal 2. Star Alliance members LOT Polish Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways International, Singapore Airlines, and Air China use Terminal 3-E as part of the Move Under One Roof program to co-locate alliance members.

Terminal 3 was designed by a consortium of Netherlands Airport Consultants (NACO), UK Architect Foster and Partners and ARUP. Lighting was designed by UK lighting architects Speirs and Major Associates. The budget of the expansion is US$3.5 billion. Much larger in size and scale than the other two terminals, Terminal 3 was the largest airport terminal-building complex in the world to be built in a single phase, with 986,000 m² (10,610,000 sq ft) in total floor area at its opening. It features a main passenger terminal (Terminal 3C) and two satellite concourses (Terminal 3D and Terminal 3E), all of them five floors above ground and two underground, with the letters "A and B" omitted to avoid confusion with the existing Terminals 1 and 2. Only two concourses were initially opened, namely Terminal 3C dedicated for domestic flights and Terminal 3E for international flights. Terminal 3D officially opened on 18 April 2013. The newly opened concourse is temporarily used solely by Air China for some of its domestic flights.

Terminal 3 of the BCIA is currently the second-largest airport passenger terminal building in the world. Its title as the world's largest was surrendered on 14 October 2008 to Dubai International Airport's Terminal 3, which has 1,713,000 m² (18,440,000 sq ft) of floor space.

On 20 July 2013, a man in a wheelchair detonated small homemade explosives in Terminal 3 of the Beijing International Airport. The bomber, reported to be Ji Zhongxing, was injured and taken to a hospital for his injuries. No other people were hurt.

System, security and luggage

Terminal 3 has a 300,000 m² (3,200,000 sq ft) transportation centre with a 7,000-car garage. The transportation centre has designated traffic lanes for airport buses, taxis and private vehicles. Travelers bound for T3 can exit their vehicles and enter T3 within five minutes. There is also a station for the Airport Express Line of the Beijing Subway.

Terminal 3 has 243 elevators, escalators or moving walkways. Each row of seats in the waiting area has electrical outlets. Every restroom has a diaper changing station. There is also a room for travelers with disabilities..

One of Terminal 3's highlights is the US$240 million luggage-transfer system. The luggage system is equipped with yellow carts, each of which has a code that matches the bar code on every piece of luggage loaded and allows easy and accurate tracking. More than 200 cameras are used to monitor activities in the luggage area.

The luggage system can handle 19,200 pieces of luggage per hour. After a luggage is checked in at any of the 292 counters in Terminal 3C, it can be transferred at a speed of ten metres per second. Hence, a luggage can travel from T3C to T3E in five minutes. Arriving passengers should be able to begin retrieving their luggage within 4.5 minutes after airplanes are unloaded.

Besides X-ray scanners, additional equipment are used to conduct baggage screening. Passengers will be able to check in their luggage at the airport from several hours to even a day before their flights. The airport will store the luggage in its luggage system and then load it on the correct aircraft.

Appearance

The highest building at the airport, A 98.3 m (323 ft) monitoring tower, stands at the southern end of T3. The roof of T3 is red, the Chinese color for good luck. The terminal's ceilings use white strips for decoration and to indicate directions. Under the white strips, the basic color of the ceiling is orange with light to dark tones indicating where a passenger is inside the building. The roof is light orange in the center. The color deepens as the roof extends to the sides in T3E and goes the other way round in T3C.

The roof of T3 has dozens of triangular windows to let in daylight. Light angles can be adjusted to ensure adequate interior lighting. Many traditional Chinese elements will be employed in the terminal's interior decoration, including a "Menhai", a big copper vat used to store water for fighting fires in the Forbidden City, and the carvings imitating the famous Nine-Dragon Wall.

An indoor garden is constructed in the T3E waiting area, in the style of imperial gardens such as the Summer Palace. In T3C, a tunnel landscape of an underground garden has been finished with plants on each side so that passengers can appreciate them inside the mini-train.

Facilities

The T3 food-service area is called a "global kitchen," where 72 stores provide food ranging from formal dishes to fast food, from Chinese to western, and from bakery goods to ice cream. Airport officials have promised that people who buy products at the airport will find the same prices in central Beijing.

In addition to food and beverage areas, there is a 16,200 m² (174,000 sq ft) domestic retail area, a 12,600 m² (136,000 sq ft) duty-free-store area and a nearly 7,200 m² (78,000 sq ft) convenience-service area, which includes banks, business centres, Internet services and more. At 45,200 m² (487,000 sq ft), the commercial area is twice the size of Beijing's Lufthansa Shopping Center.

The terminal provides 72 aerobridges or jetways and is further complemented with remote parking bays which bring the total number of gates to 150. Terminal 3 comes with an additional runway. It increases BCIA's total capacity by 72 million passengers per year to approximately 90 million.

Airbus A380

The terminal has gates and a nearby runway that can handle the Airbus A380. This capability was proven when Singapore Airlines briefly offered A380 flights to Beijing in August 2008 during the Summer Olympics. Emirates airline has started its scheduled daily operation to Dubai as of 1 August 2010. Lufthansa has been using these facilities since October 2010 to handle up to five A380 connections per week. Several other airlines in the near future will operate the A380 out of this terminal, including Malaysia Airlines and British Airways.

Passenger

Notes
^1 MIAT Mongolian flights make Beijing as an intermediate stop en route to and/or from Singapore, however it does not have the traffic rights to carry passengers solely between Beijing and Singapore.
^2 Air China flights have an intermediate stop en route at Hailar to/from Chita. Passengers to/from Chita go through immigration procedure at Hailar.
^3 Air China flights have an intermediate stop en route at Dalian to/from Fukuoka. Passengers to/from Fukuoka go through immigration procedure at Dalian.
^4 Air China flight CA153 and CA154 have an intermediate stop en route at Dalian to/from Hiroshima. Passengers on these flights depart and arrive at Terminal 3C, and go through immigration procedure at Dalian.
^5 Air China flights have an intermediate stop en route at Xiamen to/from Jakarta. Passengers to/from Jakarta go through immigration procedure at Xiamen.
^6 Air China flights have an intermediate stop en route at Shanghai to/from Sendai. Passengers to/from Sendai go through immigration procedure at Shanghai.
^7 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Shanghai to/from Delhi. Passengers to/from Delhi go through immigration procedure at Shanghai.
^8 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Kunming to/from Dhaka. Passengers to/from Dhaka go through immigration procedure at Kunming.
^9 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Qingdao to/from Fukuoka. Passengers to/from Fukuoka go through immigration procedure at Qingdao.
^10 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Qingdao to/from Nagoya. Passengers to/from Nagoya go through immigration procedure at Qingdao.
^11 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Kunming to/from Naypyidaw. Passengers to/from Naypyidaw go through immigration procedure at Kunming.
^12 China Eastern Airlines flight MU277 and MU278 have an intermediate stop en route at Yantai to/from Osaka. Passengers on these flights go through immigration procedure at Yantai.
^13 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Nanjing to/from Sydney. Passengers to/from Sydney go through immigration procedure at Nanjing.
^14 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Shanghai to/from Tokyo. Passengers to/from Tokyo go through immigration procedure at Shanghai.
^15 China Eastern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Kunming to/from Vientiane. Passengers to/from Vientiane go through immigration procedure at Kunming.
^16 China Southern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Guangzhou to/from Phnom Penh. Passengers to/from Phnom Penh go through immigration procedure at Guangzhou.
^17 China Southern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Ürümqi to/from Tbilisi. Passengers to/from Tbilisi go through immigration procedure at Ürümqi.
^18 China Southern Airlines flights have an intermediate stop en route at Ürümqi to/from Tehran. Passengers to/from Tehran go through immigration procedure at Ürümqi.

Intra-terminal transportation

Terminal 3 consists of three sub-concourses. Both domestic and international travelers check in at T3C. Gates for domestic flights are in T3C and T3D (solely for domestic Air China flights), while international flights are handled in T3E. The 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) trip between T3C and T3E is shortened to 2–5 minutes by an automated people mover.

Inter-terminal transportation

The airport provides free inter-terminal shuttle bus between Terminals 1/2 and 3. The buses set out every 10 minutes from 6 am to 11 pm, and every 30 minutes from 11pm till 6am. Terminals 1 and 2 are connected by a lengthy corridor.

Rail

Beijing Capital International Airport is served by the Airport Express Line of the Beijing Subway. The 28.1 km (17.5 mi) line runs from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 and then to the city with stops at Sanyuanqiao and Dongzhimen. The line opened on 19 July 2008, in time for the 2008 Olympics. A one-way trip takes approximately 16–20 minutes and costs ¥25. The running hours are 6:35-23:10 for T2, 6:20-22:50 for T3 and 6:00-22:30 for Dongzhimen.

Bus

The airport offers bus service to and from points throughout the city including Xidan, Beijing Railway Station, Beijing South Station, Beijing West Station, Zhongguancun, Fangzhuang and Shangdi on eleven airport bus routes. The airport buses run to each of the three terminals and cost ¥16 per ride. The airport buses accept only paper tickets that are sold at each terminal and certain bus stops in the city. The airport also offers bus service to and from neighboring cities including Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Baoding, Langfang and Tangshan.

Taxi

Taxi service from the airport to Beijing is available. Normal taxis (not limousines) are on the meter, and a normal reasonable price to downtown Beijing is around ¥150.

Car

The airport is accessible by four express tollways. Two of these run directly from northeastern Beijing to the airport. The other two connect to the airport from nearby highways.

In addition to the expressways, there is a tree-lined, two-lane road that runs just south of the Airport Expressway. This Old Airport Road was the primary access route to the airport prior to the expressway's opening and remains the only untolled road to the airport.

Parking

The airport's parking garage offers 24-hour parking service.

Accolades

Other facilities

Beijing Capital Airlines has its headquarters in the Capital Airlines Building (首都航空大厦 Shǒudū Hángkōng Dàshà) at the airport.

Sister airports