Shaped like a phoenix, though to some observers it is more reminiscent of a starfish, the airport was designed by famed Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid, and formally opened in late September. The terminal building was designed by British architects Zaha Hadid Architects and French planners ADPI, and executed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD). It consists of a central hub with six curved spokes.
Shaped like a phoenix, though to some observers it is more reminiscent of a starfish, the airport was designed by famed Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid, and formally opened in late September. The terminal building was designed by British architects Zaha Hadid Architects and French planners ADPI, and executed by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD). It consists of a central hub with six curved spokes.
It boasts four runways and is expected to handle up to 72 million passengers a year by 2025, eventually reaching 100 million.
Magnificence in less than 5 years
Construction of the airport began on December 26, 2014. By March 2017, the terminal had its concrete structure capped. On January 23, 2019, the first flight inspection began to be carried out and was expected to be completed in March.
On June 30, 2019, the airport officially finished construction and was in preparation for its September opening. The construction of the airport itself cost CN¥120bn (approximately US$17bn), with other projects in the periphery costing CN¥330bn (US$46.2bn), giving a total cost of CN¥450bn (US$63bn).
Hong Kong design studio Lead 8 was appointed as lead designer of the integrated service building (the 6th pier) in 2018. The terminal, according to Lead 8, will encompass "a purposeful design of work spaces, with integrated retail, dining, and entertainment options for the large number of passengers expected," with plans to incorporate interactive pet hotels, a child care and nursery, hybrid online retail and dining, and a showroom for companies.
The airport opened on 25 September 2019—just six days before the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China—in a ceremony attended by the Chinese president and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping. Inaugural flights from seven Chinese airlines began later in the afternoon, although flights operating out of the airport on the day were member-only, with the first official flight out of the airport an Airbus A380 operated by China Southern Airlines. Flights for the public began the following day on 26 September 2019. The first commercial flight landed at Beijing Daxing at 10:12 (UTC+8), September 26, 2019.
The airport is linked to the city through various means of transportation, and a ground transportation center was constructed beneath the terminal building for this purpose. Two underground railway stations (for Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway and Intercity Railway Connector) and three metro stations (Daxing Airport Express, Line 20 (Line R4) and another planned metro line) were built beneath the terminal building.
Currently, only one of the metro lines (Daxing Airport Express) and one of the railway lines (Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway) are in operation. The airport is also served by a highway system including Beijing Daxing Airport Expressway and Beijing Daxing Airport North Line Expressway connecting the airport and Beijing city.
Ten passenger airlines (China Southern Airlines, China United Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines, Hebei Airlines, Spring Airlines, Okay Airways, Juneyao Airlines, XiamenAir and Donghai Airlines) and one cargo airline (China Postal Airlines) signed agreements with the Capital Airport Group to enter the new airport.
CAAC required each Mainland Chinese airline (other than China Postal Airlines) to serve only one Beijing-area airport following the opening of Daxing, but allowed foreign airlines (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan-based airlines) to operate from both airports if they wished to do so. China Eastern Group and China Southern Group were each allocated 40% of landing slots with the remaining 20% for smaller Mainland China and international airlines. However, on 1 May 2019, this plan was changed by CAAC, with China Eastern Group relinquishing 10% of its allocated slots (to give it 30% of slots) to Air China Group in exchange for the China Eastern group continuing to operate its Shanghai-Beijing flights at Beijing Capital Airport.
Among Oneworld carriers, British Airways and Malaysia Airlines will move their London- and Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing flights to Daxing whilst Finnair has filed for flights from Helsinki-to-Daxing as well as retaining a daily flight to Capital. American Airlines has indicated plans to relocate flights from Capital to Daxing due to its tie-up with China Southern. Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon reportedly intend to stay at Capital. The alliance announced in February 2019, that its member airlines were considering a formal co-location scheme at Daxing.