China about to open new $16 billion mega airport with ‘world’s biggest terminal’

It cost China a cool $16b to build and looks astonishing from the sky. It’s one of the most extraordinary airports the world has ever seen.

China’s new mega airport is set to open at the end of this month ahead of the country’s national day.

The transport hub in Beijing, which cost more than $16 billion, will feature a huge terminal designed by leading architect Zaha Hadid that’s billed to be the world’s biggest terminal building, The Sun reported.

China will celebrate its national day on October 1 and Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to open before then, on September 30.

Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to open to coincide with China’s national day on October 1. Picture: Imaginechina via AP Images

Some Chinese media have reported the airport would gradually open in the days leading up to it. However, the airport’s official page on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, has not confirmed this.

The airport has scheduled the first commercial flights to Hong Kong and Guangzhou on China Southern Airlines today, according to flight information on Flightradar 24.

But it’s not clear whether those flights are part of the series of operational tests at the airport.

An interior view of the new airport. Picture: Imaginechina via AP

Earlier this week, the airport completed the final tests on its border control systems.

Local media said while security checks used to take five to seven minutes, it should only take three to four seconds under the new system.

That’s thanks to a combination of new technology that includes infra-red temperature gauge, facial recognition and sensors that detect radioactive materials.

It’s touted as ‘the world’s largest integrated transportation hub’. Picture: Imaginechina via AP

China’s state media agency said the construction for the airport, located around 46km from central Beijing, was completed on June 30, as planned.

“It is the world’s largest integrated transportation hub,” Bai Henghong, director of the Beijing Daxing International Airport project, told the agency.

“The terminal building is also the world’s largest built with a seamless steel structure, boasting the world’s first design of double-deck departure and double-deck arrival platforms.”

The terminal building cost more than $16 billion to build. Picture: Supplied

The starfish-shaped terminal building has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

It covers a total area of a million square metres according to a recent report by the BBC, although the plans for the building was originally 700,000sq m.

Arrivals and departures will have two floors each at the terminal, which splits into six arms.

There are lots of green credentials, including a solar farm, and all rain water will be collected.

An interior view of the new airport. Picture: Imaginechina via AP

The same architects also designed the 80,000sq m ground transportation building that sits below the terminal.

This will link the terminal to high speed trains as well as metro to central Beijing.

The new Beijing airport has already been through a series of operational tests with Chinese airlines. Around 500 flights were expected to take part in these tests, and there were simulations of 52,000 passenger journeys to iron out any issues.

The airport is believed to be one of the world’s most impressive. Picture: Imaginechina via AP

At the moment, Beijing’s Capital International Airport is the second busiest airport in the world, after Atlanta in the United States.

Also in Asia, Singapore Airport recently unveiled a new lifestyle hub that featured an indoor waterfall and forest.

Test flights have already been carried out. Picture: Imaginechina via AP

BEIJING DAXING AIRPORT IN NUMBERS

• The terminal at Beijing Daxing International Airport measures 1,000,000sq m — or around 140 average football pitches (7140sq m each)

• Initially there will be four runways, but there are plans for this to expand to seven in the future

A worker cleans glass in the terminal building before its opening. Picture: STR/AFP

• By 2025, some 72 million passengers will travel through the airport on about 630,000 flights a year — eventually this will rise to 100 million

• There are plans for a second terminal to be added to the airport although there are no concrete plans as to when this will happen

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

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