You’re Terminated
Beijing’s Capital Airport gets a beautifying, pre-Olympic boost in capacity
Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) will open this week, six months ahead of the start of the 2008 Olympic Games. The addition of Terminal 3 and a third runway will provide what is already China’s busiest airport with the extra capacity to support the Games, and allow it to service up to 90 million passengers annually by 2012.
The iconic terminal building, designed by Sir Norman Foster and built by UK company Arup, is intended to be one of the most modern and passenger friendly super-hub facilities in the world, with clear and intuitive layouts, minimal changes of level, and fast transfer times. It has taken just under four years from the start of construction work on the building to this week’s opening.
“As well as being another new design icon for the city of Beijing, along with the National Stadium, the National Aquatics Centre and the CCTV Headquarters, this new terminal will set global standards for sustainability, operational efficiency and positive passenger experience,” says Michael Kwok, Arup’s Project Director for Terminal 3.
Terminal 3 will also be one of the world’s more environmentally sustainable airport terminal buildings and has been designed to respond to Beijing’s cold winters, hot summers, short autumn and spring seasons. The terminal roof incorporates south-east orientated skylights which enable the sun to warm the building on winter mornings and make the most of available daylight during normal operational times. This produces dramatic reductions in the energy required for both heating and cooling.
Built in double-quick time (no surprise there), Sir Norman Foster’s brainchild is a testament to cheap labor. A snip at RMB 21 billion (just under US$3 billion), the 245-acre construction will catapult Beijing airport from ninth to third-busiest air hub in the world in its first year.
Although the shimmering edifice of glass, steel and aluminium is decidedly high-tech, there are obvious nods to China’s vaunted cultural heritage. Airport authorities asked Sir Norman to incorporate the bright tones of the Forbidden City in his design, and these are evident in the tapering red pillars and golden roof evoking a dragon’s back. Altogether the three buildings of terminal 3 house 445 lifts, 1,800 miles of cables and a car park for 7,000 vehicles.
The increased capacity of BCIA, coupled with the continued growth in passenger numbers (brought about by the Olympics and China’s continued growth on the global market), will bring BCIA into the top five airports globally for total passenger numbers, along side the likes of London Heathrow UK (Europe’s busiest airport), Atlanta Georgia USA (the world’s busiest airport), Chicago O’Hare USA, and Tokyo Haneda Japan (Asia’s busiest airport).
The transfer of flights to the new terminal will take place in two stages. From February 29, the new building will handle passengers of British Airways, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Shandong Airlines and Sichuan Airlines. From March 26 all other international airlines will move across to Terminal 3, as will Air China and Shanghai Airlines. March 26 is also the date when Terminal 3 starts to handle all domestic flights between Beijing and Shanghai Hongqiao airport. After March 26 Terminals 1 and 2 will only be used for domestic flights by Hainan Airlines (Terminal 1) or China Eastern and China Southern Airlines (Terminal 2).
Currently under construction and due to open before the Games is a high-speed, 28.5-km Airport Line which will shuttle fliers to and from central Beijing in an inconceivable 17 minutes. With one end terminating at Dongzhimen station, the line will have two trains – one to Terminal 2 and one to Terminal 3.
China’s air industry is rapidly expanding - government officials said last month that 97 more airports will be built across the country by 2020, bringing the total number to 239. Of these, 13 are projected to handle 30 million passengers a year - about the same number as London Gatwick.
Images courtesy of Arup