Beijing Daxing International Airport - Beijing Daxing International Airport

Beijing Daxing International Airport (北京大兴国际机场 Běijīng Dàxīng Guójì Jīchǎng, PKX ^IATA) is a major airport serving Beijing, the capital of China, and the surrounding area.

Understand

Beijing Daxing opened in Sep 2019, and is the largest in the world by area. It has been designed to be the next international hub of the Beijing area and the country in general, with the goal of being able to serve up to 100 million passengers annually. In 2018 only two airports had seen that many passengers - Atlanta Airport and Beijing Capital Airport. However, because of this and incentives to develop the nearby area, the airport is far from the city center. It is 47 km south of the city center. It is partly in greater Beijing and partly in the surrounding province of Hebei. The sole terminal, with six arms radiating from a central nexus, is nicknamed "starfish" due to its shape and color. The design was chosen to allow it to be both a gigantic airport capable of serving a hundred million passengers each years and still have manageable lengths between different parts of the airport. It may or may not have been inspired by the hexagonal terminal of old Berlin Tegel airport which shut down in 2020 and was notable for its short distances. With the opening of Daxing, one of the oldest airports in the world, Nanyuan Airport, opened in 1910, shut down after over a century of operations.

Flights

Most flights are domestic. Budget carrier China United Airlines has established a hub here and dominates the airport. Several Chinese airlines, including the major players Air China, China Southern and China Eastern also have a significant presence. There are also a few other carriers from the rest of the world, with more gradually moving or adding flights in the future. SkyTeam and Oneworld members are more ambitious about operating at Daxing, while Star Alliance members tend to want to stay at Capital. Building this airport and keeping Capital airport open was a decision that seemed to make a lot of sense in light of over a hundred million passengers every year flying to Beijing prior to the opening of Daxing, but if the Covid-crisis proves to have a long term effect on aviation, there is the danger of a situation similar to that at Montreal where the new airport eventually fell into almost ghost town status as few airlines and travelers were willing to abandon the old one. Time will tell how many airlines end up shifting traffic from Capital to Daxing and whether both airports will stick around or whether a resurgence in air travel makes both airports operate at their intended capacity.

Ground transportation

While the airport is a long way away from the city, there are several transportation options that make it easy, and even fairly fast, to access.

By rail

Rail is probably intended to be how most passengers (or at least most tourists) will get to and from Daxing. 39.513921116.4099341 Daxing Airport station serves all rail transport at the airport, with separate areas for the subway and high-speed trains.

By high-speed train

The Beijing-Xiong'an intercity railway provides high-speed rail service to the city center. From the airport, it goes to Beijing Daxing (next to Huangcun railway station, with connections to the conventional rail network and  Daxing ) and Beijing West (connections to both HSR and conventional rail, as well as  7  9 ) stations. A ticket to Beijing West costs ¥25. More high-speed railway lines are planned to pass through the airport, connecting it to the rest of Hebei and Tianjin.

By subway

The Daxing Airport Express connects the airport to Daxing (at Daxing Xicheng) and the subway at Caoqiao (outer loop line  10 ). It is somewhat more expensive, costing ¥35 to Caoqiao, and will require at least one more transfer to get into the city center. However, it also features city check-in for what seems to be all airlines flying into Daxing. There are also business class cars with separate faregates and entrances; these have a higher fare of ¥50.

By bus

There is a counter at the east of level 1F for buying bus tickets for the Airport Shuttle Bus, with 5 daytime routes and 1 overnight route, all costing ¥40. It's the same operator that serves Capital.

By car

The Daxing Airport Expressway (Provincial Highway S3501) is the main route to the airport. It runs through Daxing and terminates at Beijing's 5th ring road (S50). A toll is charged for vehicles traversing the route.

In addition, the Daxing Airport North Line Expressway (Provincial Highway S3300) connects the airport to multiple highways and expressways. It is not directly accessible from the terminal — you must use S3501, which S3300 runs perpendicular to, to merge onto it.

Get around

The airport does not have any peoplemovers, but it is claimed that it only requires 8 minutes to walk from security to the farthest gate - a claimed benefit of the six-armed star-shape of the terminal.

Wait

Eat and drink

Restaurants before security are available on floors 1, 2, 3 and 5, while more choices are offered in the post-security area, mostly on the 2nd floor of domestic departure/arrival concourse.

• And More Restaurant (小莫餐厅), S-AR05-007~009, 5th Floor, Terminal Building (non-restricted area/landside). 10:00 - last flight of the day. A Mediterranean-style restaurant brand under Beijing Exhibition Center Group, offering Spanish, Italian and French dishes. ¥200-¥300. (updated Oct 2019)
• Grandma's Home (外婆家), S-AR05-002~004, 5th Floor, Terminal Building (non-restricted area/landside). 10:00 - last flight of the day. A Chinese restaurant chain offering Hangzhou-style dishes. ¥80-¥150. (updated Oct 2019)
• The Dining Room (南小馆), Domestic arrival hall, 2nd Floor, Terminal Building (non-restricted area/landside). 06:00 - last flight of the day. Shanghai-style restaurant offering noodles, wonton, Xiaolongbao, etc. ¥85-¥100. (updated Oct 2019)
• Western Mahua (西部马华), S-AR01-001 / S-G01-001, international arrival hall (near Airport Bus Ticket Office), 1st Floor, Terminal Building (non-restricted area/landside). 05:00 - last flight of the day. A branch of Western Mahua Beef Noodles restaurant, a halal restaurant chain in Beijing offering Lanzhou-style beef noodle soup. ¥40. (updated Oct 2019)

Buy

There are already some stores for brands such as Gucci and Huawei in the airport.

Connect

Cope

Sleep

There is a hotel on the east of the terminal building.

• Aerotel Beijing (北京遨途机场酒店), Northeast Pier, Beijing Daxing International Airport, ☏ 86 10 8921 0666, ✉[email protected]. On the first and second levels of the Northeast Pier, with 215 guestrooms. Hourly and full-day room rates are available. (updated Oct 2019)

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