The construction of Beijing Daxing International Airport has been completed, and the airport will start operation by the end of September. China Southern Airlines will be the first to operate its commercial flight from Beijing's new airport on around Sept. 20.
The airport will meet operational conditions before Sept. 15. So far, it has completed five comprehensive drills, conducted more than 500 departures and arrivals, and handled 50,000 mock passengers in dry runs.
A total of 16 domestic and overseas carriers including China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China United Airlines, British Airways, and Finnair plan to operate out of Beijing Daxing International Airport this winter and next spring.
According to the airport's plan, the new airport will deploy 116 routes, including 101 domestic routes and 15 international routes, starting from October. This flight network will include 112 destinations, including 97 in China and 15 overseas.
China Eastern Airlines is expected to put 200 planes into operation in the new airport, and move all its flights to the new airport by the end of next March. The airline said it will serve a network of 12 routes and 14 domestic and overseas destinations, including Shanghai, Kunming, Guangzhou, Paris, and London.
As for China Southern Airlines, 13 routes and 28 flights will be transferred to the new airport from Oct. 27. And the airline will deploy 176 flights per week to 13 destinations.
China United Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Eastern, is expected to become the first airline to transfer its operations to Daxing airport from its current headquarters at Beijing Nanyuan Airport.
China United will move more than 50 planes and over 4,000 employees to the new airport before the airport starts operation. It is expected to operate 131 flights per day, including a network of 69 routes and 73 domestic and overseas destinations.
Within the airport, cutting-edge technologies such as facial recognition will be used to improve efficiency. For example, for passenger check-in, the airport has more than 400 self-service check-in equipment, and the self-service coverage rate will reach 80%. This can reduce passengers' waiting time to 10 minutes.
The airport has also deployed an efficient and intelligent security inspection channel, which can handle 260 people per hour. That is 40% more efficient than the traditional inspection channel. The efficiency ensures that the time needed to pass the security inspection will be less than five minutes, according to officials at the airport.
