Beijing Daxing International Airport, the 80 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) starfish-shaped terminal, is designed to eventually handle more than 100 million passengers a year.
Within two decades, annual passenger traffic in China’s skies will reach 1.6 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association, more than the country’s population today.
The vast new airport should increase Beijing’s passenger capacity by 60% and help unclog the capital’s other international airport — the second busiest in the world behind Atlanta. Bottlenecks at Beijing Capital International Airport likely capped annual passenger traffic growth at an average of 4% from 2013 to 2018, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Denise Wong said.
China still trails many major aviation markets in Asia in terms of connectivity, according to a report by OAG Aviation Worldwide published Tuesday. Singapore and Hong Kong are the region’s most internationally connected hubs, the report showed. Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China’s top entry, came in eighth.
The relaxation of China’s one-route, one-airline policy at Daxing will encourage Chinese carriers to apply for international routes once monopolized by their competitors, said Yu Zhanfu, a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Beijing who focuses on aviation.
Daxing expects one fifth of its passengers to be transfers by 2025.
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