Summary

• Beijing Daxing Airport, located 50km south of Beijing, has been in the news due to low demand during the pandemic and recent flooding.
• The airport is nearly four years old and replaced Beijing Nanyuan Airport, providing additional capacity for airlines.
• With 28 airlines operating, including China Southern Airlines and Aeroflot, Daxing Airport is designed as a mega airport with the world's largest single-building terminal.

Beijing Daxing Airport has been in the news a lot recently. However, not necessarily for the best of reasons. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand-new airport was seeing very little demand. More recently, the airport found itself flooded after a heavy downpour in the region during the week.

Whether you're looking to fly through Beijing Daxing soon or are just interested in the airport, here are ten things you should know about the Chinese capital city's newest international airport:

1 Location

Beijing Daxing Airport is located around 50km south of the city of Beijing. The airport is located in the Daxing district in Beijing, hence its name. It is located close to the border between Beijing and the Hebei Province.

2 Four years old

Beijing Daxing Airport was opened to passengers on September 26th, 2019, meaning that it is now almost four years old. The first flight from the new airport was operated by a China Southern Airbus A380 a day before the official opening on September 25th. The entire China Southern Airbus A380 fleet had now been retired.

3 Replacing Beijing Nanyuan

China United Airlines was the only user of Beijing Nanyuan Airport. This closed when the airline moved its operations to Daxing in one big overnight operation. Daxing also provides additional capacity that Beijing Capital Airport cannot provide.

4 28 airlines

According to schedule data from Cirium, Beijing Daxing Airport currently has 28 airlines ranging from China Southern Airlines, with 5,133 departures scheduled this August, to Himalaya Airlines, with eight arrivals. The top 11 airlines are all Chinese. The biggest non-Chinese carrier using the facility is Aeroflot, with 35 services planned this month. The top 5 airlines are,

5 City connections

Daxing's subway connection opened on the 15th of September, 2019. It sees the airport linked to Caoqiao Station in Beijing. However, the line is due to be expanded beyond Caoqiao to Lize Shangwuqu. The airport also has a high-speed rail connection to the line between Beijing and Xiong'an.

6 Size

Beijing Daxing Airport has been designed to act as a mega airport. The terminal building is over 1,000,000 square meters in size, making it the largest single-building airport terminal in the world, according to the BBC. However, the huge size doesn't stop there. According to the China Aviation Review, China Southern Airlines has a hangar capable of holding two A380s, three B777s, and three A320s all at once.

#DaxingSecret

China Southern airline built a laaaaarge hanger at Beijing Daxing Intl Aiport. This hanger, the largest in Asia, can accommodate 2 A380s, 3 B777s and 3 A320s at the same time. pic.twitter.com/DQr1X3r9xH

— ChinaAviationReview (@ChinaAvReview) September 18, 2019

7 Runways

The new airport at Daxing has no shortage of runways. There are four concrete runways available for use. One, 01L/19R is 3,400 meters long. The other three (17L/35R, 17R/35L, and 11L/29R) are all 3,800 meters long.

8 Expansion possible

While Daxing is already a huge airport, it could get even bigger in the future. As you can see from the below plan, there is the space available to build additional runways, along with a second southern terminal.

9 Identifiers

The airport's official name is Beijing Daxing International Airport or 北京大兴国际机场 in Chinese. IATA gave the airport the identifier PKX. Meanwhile, ICAO gave Daxing the identifier ZBAD.

10 Huge Capacity

The current iteration of Daxing Airport has already been built with huge potential. The first phase of development should be able to handle up to 72 million passengers and two million tonnes of freight. Of course, with the past few COVID-impacted years, the facility is yet to get near this figure, handling just 10,277,623 passengers in 2022.

Are you due to fly from Daxing Airport? Are you excited for its opening? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!