News
Beijing Daxing to open in 2019 and construction at Chengdu Tianfu picks up pace
October 14th 2016
Beijing’s New Airport [Daxing] is on track to open in 2019, airport representatives confirmed to media on Monday. In phase 1, Daxing is projected to handle 45 million passengers a year with four runways. Read More » Two later phases will push total capacity at the airport to 100 million passengers annually, using six runways. The final cost of Daxing, which is designed to become the world’s largest airfield, is estimated to be $12 billion.
"Our worry is not that we will have enough passengers but whether we will be able to satisfy demand," said Jia Zhiguo, an assistant general manager on the construction project. Beijing Capital International Airport and Nanyuan Airport will continue to operate simultaneously to Daxing.
Air China and its Star Alliance associates, including Juneyao Airlines, will continue to operate from Capital Airport, but China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and their SkyTeam affiliates will relocate with Daxing.
Mainland airports are largely operating at well beyond their design capacities. Chengdu’s Shuangliu International Airport this week said it would add 52 stands to accommodate booming demand. Beijing’s Capital Airport, Shuangliu, also is full-up.
Construction on Chengdu’s new Tianfu International Airport started in May with the facility, 50kms from down town, scheduled to open in 2020.
Singapore Changi will open a fourth terminal in the second half of next year, which is forecast to add 16 million passengers a year to the airport, to 85 million annually.
