The Largest Airport

The Largest Airport - Beijing Capital International Airport

      The Beijing Capital International Airport, designed by renowned British architect Norman Foster, is 986,000 meters square and is the world's largest airport.

       Airport combines traditional Chinese style with high technology and was opened in Beijing with an inaugural commercial flight from the east.

          The new mega-terminal, number 3, Beijing Airport, was built in time for the millions of visitors for the Olympics in August 2008.

         Construction began in 2004, involving 40,000 workers and cost 27 billion yuan (U.S. $ 6.4 billion), the largest covered structure in the world.

         The British architect created the work like a giant dragon with a long tail and triangular skylights resembling scales of the mythical creature and allow make the most of natural light and conserve heat.

           Foster used glass and steel structure in the form of "I" and turned to high technology to combine traditional Chinese architectural elements such as curved roof and red columns that evoke the golden palaces of Imperial China.

       The new construction "is colossal." "To get an idea of ​​proportion, imagine the five Heathrow terminals together under one roof. The building extends for 3.25 km and occupies 986,000 meters square, equivalent to 170 football fields.

        The tracks are designed to receive the A380, the giant Airbus, and control of the luggage is carried by the system with more advanced technology.

Premises, passengers will have access to more than 64 Chinese and Western restaurants and more than 90 stores, and could reach the city center via a high speed train.

           The terminal took four years to be built, with 50 000 workers engaged in the work. Three people died in construction, the Chinese authorities have confirmed.

          The mega-terminal will allow a transit of 76 million passengers per year, surpassing the 53.7 million that circulated in 2007 by the Beijing airport, one of the ten busiest in the world.

          When fully operational, the new terminal will support 1,590 flights per day to a volume of 208 000 passengers. Analysts believe that the maximum capacity of the airport will soon be insufficient, reflecting the recurring problem of increasing air traffic in parallel with the Chinese economic growth is unprecedented. It is expected that the maximum capacity is reached in 2015.

         The Chinese authorities are trying by all means keep up this pace of growth, with over 100 new airports planned across the country by 2020, which will cost over 60 billion dollars (about 39.5 billion euros) including the world's highest in Tibet.

         About ten thousand people were removed from their homes to make room for the new building, provoking criticism from international organizations.