China to be Biggest Air Hub
At a time when most of the world’s economies have been shrinking, China’s has been growing. This has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in air passengers. Nowe it seems as though the Chinese capital Beijing is to become the world capital of air travel.
The rise of Chinese being able to take trips overseas and the greater ease of obtaining Chinese visas has been startling. The variety of airlines offering regular scheduled services to the country have also increased, including such carriers as the UAE based Etihad Airways now offering flights to China.
Proposals for giant third airport could mean 120 million passengers pass through Chinese capital a year
Beijing is moving to overtake London as the world’s busiest aviation hub with the construction of a third airport that could have as many as nine runways.
The government has yet to announce details of the project, but the Guardian has spoken to sources familiar with the initial designs and seen signs of construction in the rural district of Daxing, about 31 miles (50km) south-west of the city centre.
It was only four years ago that the existing airport in the north of the city opened a huge third terminal ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Designed by the British architect, Norman Foster, it was then the world’s biggest airport building, with more floor space than all five Heathrow terminals combined. But it has filled faster than expected due to the rapid growth of China’s economy.
Last year, the airport handled 73.9 million passengers. By 2015, this is expected to rise to 90 million – 12 million more than it was designed for.
Beijing authorities have said they will start work this year on land acquisition and demolition for a new airport. In addition to a semi-military airport in Nanyuan, this first phase – due for completion in 2015 – will give the city the capacity to handle 120 million passengers a year. Depending on growth, this would see Beijing overtake London and Tokyo, which each had about 100 million in 2010. Even by Chinese standards, the proposals for the later stages of construction are staggering.
According to the domestic media and sources familiar with the project, the new airport is being designed to ultimately handle between 120 million and 200 million passengers, and have eight civilian runways and perhaps another for the military if Nanyuan is closed. Denver international airport currently has the most runways in the world with seven.
Once completed, the new airport will be connected to a new expressway and high-speed train line that will speed travellers to the centre of the city in 30 minutes. Today, however, Daxing is more than an hour’s drive away.
