Beijing airport mega-terminal opens

[Mid]

Beijing airport mega-terminal opens



Beijing airport's new $3.6bn third terminal has opened for service as the Chinese capital ramps up preparations for the 2008 Olympics [AFP]



The huge building, designed by British architect Norman Foster, is nearly 3 kilometres long and covers 98 hectares making it the world's largest single airport terminal building [Reuters]



Terminal Three has double the number of boarding gates of the old terminals and nearly 300 check-in desks [GALLO/GETTY]



The new terminal will raise the airport's capacity to 76 million a year. Its previous official capacity was 35 million, although last year some 48 million passed through its then two terminals [Reuters]



The opening of the new airport comes as Chinese authorities struggle to keep pace with rising demand for air travel. Passenger traffic grew 16 per cent in 2007 to 185 million passenger trips, and is expected to increase to 210 million in 2008 [Reuters]



The new building includes elements of traditional Chinese architecture in a massive structure designed to look like a dragon from the air [Reuters]



High speed shuttle trains link the new building to the other terminals in the airport [Reuters]



The new terminal took just four years to build and is just one of many multi-billion dollar construction projects across Beijing for the Olympics [GALLO/GETTY]

english.aljazeera.net

[Marmite the Dog]

High speed shuttle trains link the new building to the other terminals in the airport

I thought they were supposed to arrive 2 or 3 years after the airport opens?

[Mid]

geography just a little off , China's to the North

[Texpat]

Admittedly, I haven't been following this project. So they've added a three kilometer terminal building doubling the number of gates and adding 300 check in desks.

What about runways? Were they increased proportionally or is current runway traffic running at 1/3 capacity?

China's scale boggles my mind. Everything is so huge (well almost everything).
Over Chinese New Year 250 million people were stranded at snowbound train stations trying to get home. That's just crazy.

[Propagator]

All well and good opening these mega terminals, but do they increase the ground support staff in line with this.

Last time out of Thailand was terrible. Arrived before check in time, but already the queue was long and then check in opened 20 mins late. Good half hour before I actually checked in, then bloody immigration, waiting there for nearly 45 mins before I got to the front of the queue. Then you got the long walk to boarding gate and security.

I dont even want to mention the last time at Heathrow.

[Butterfly]

I thought they were supposed to arrive 2 or 3 years after the airport opens?

The Chinese are a bit more efficient than the Thais if you haven't noticed, but I get your point

[terry57]

I hope they got rid of those touts that hide in the airport as last time I went through Beijing they were trying to extort tourist for bog paper in the dunnies.

Told them to fok off, and was really pissed off the authority's let these munters operate in the international airport.