Chinese authorities declared that construction on Beijing’s Daxing International Airport is “complete”, as the airport begins preparations to launch operations on September 30th.

Daxing, meaning “big star” in Chinese, will be one of the world’s busiest airports when it opens, with an anticipated 72 million passengers flying through each year by 2025. 

The airport has the second largest single-building airport terminal in the world, and will be a hub for China Eastern and China Southern; China Eastern is entitled to 30% of departure and arrival slots, while China Southern will get 40%.

The airport has already undergone aircraft testing; in mid-May, the airport welcomed an Air China Boeing 747-8, a China Eastern A350-900, a China Southern A380, and a Xiamen Air Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to conduct taxiway and runway tests.

The first foreign carrier to announce that it was officially starting flights to Beijing Daxing was Finnair, which will fly three weekly flights from Helsinki beginning on November 3rd using an Airbus A330-300. 

British Airways has announced that all direct flights to and from Heathrow and Beijing will move to new state-of-the-art Daxing airport from October 27th .

China Eastern will use the new airport to begin a long awaited long-haul expansion. 

China Southern will launch international operations with a daily flight to London-Heathrow in September, begin flights to thirteen other destinations including Ho Chi Minh City in October, and aims to base 250 aircraft over the next five years operating 900 daily flights.

https://www.radarbox.com/airport/ZBAD

The airport will be connected to Beijing by the Beijing-Xiong’an intercity high speed railway, opening in September. In addition, a dedicated subway line will connect the airport to Line 10.