Beijing's Capital International Airport

Beijing Capital International Airport (IATA: PEK, ICAO: ZBAA) is the main international airport that serves the capital city of Beijing, People's Republic of China.

The IATA Airport Code is PEK, reflecting Beijing's former Romanization Peking. Another code is also frequently used BJS, reflecting the current pinyin spelling of Beijing and including all airports in the Beijing metropolitan area; currently, Beijing Capital (PEK) is the only civil aviation airport that falls under BJS. Entering either code will get a passenger to the same airport.

Beijing Capital International Airport is located around 20 km to the northeast of Beijing city center. Although many consider it to lie in Shunyi District, it, in fact, is an exclave of Chaoyang District, Beijing.

The airport is the main hub of Air China, Hainan Airlines, and China Southern Airlines. The airport expansion is largely funded by a 500-million-euro (USD 625 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The loan is the largest ever granted by the EIB in Asia and the agreement was signed during the eighth China-EU Summit held in September 2005.

Beijing Capital is today the busiest airport in the People's Republic of China, having registered double-digit growth annually since the SARS crisis of 2003. In 2004, it became the busiest airport in Asia by aircraft movements, overtaking Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). In terms of passengers, Beijing was the second-busiest airport in Asia and ninth-busiest worldwide in 2006. In 2006, it served 48,501,102 passengers, moved 1,028,908 metric tonnes of cargo and had 376,340 aircraft movements.

Terminals

Terminal 1 opened September 20, 2004 and handles China Southern (CZ) flights, and originally was planned to handle domestic traffic, excluding those to Hong Kong and Macau. It was converted from the 1980s structure and has been thoroughly remodelled. Terminal 1 is relatively small, with approximately ten boarding gates.

Terminal 2 formerly served domestic and international flights in one relatively compressed terminal. That stress is now being taken more and more by Terminal 1. Terminal 2 is far bigger than Terminal 1. It can easily handle twenty airplanes at docks connecting directly to the terminal building.

There is a passage linking the two terminals together; this is accessible at the public level (no passports needed).

There is a limited selection of food and dining options at Terminal 2. There is only one restaurant in the international area of the terminal once passengers are past security, and the prices are several times higher than similar food downtown Beijing. A Japanese set meal is advertised on the official airport website as RMB 88, four-times higher than a similar offering downtown. By comparison, the domestic area of Terminal 2 has a number of dining options, all at more reasonable prices. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Starbucks have outlets in the airport in both Terminals 1 and 2, but they are only available before passengers go through check-in and security.

Terminal 3 was designed by the British-based architectural firm Foster and Partners. Far grander in size and scale than the existing terminals (would become arguably the largest airport terminal building complex built in a single phase with 900,000 sq. meters in total floor area, it features a main passenger terminal (Terminal 3A), two satellite concourses (Terminal 3B and Terminal 3C) and five floors above ground and two underground. It provides 66 aerobridges or jetways--further complemented with remote parking bays which bring the grand total of gates to 120 for the terminal alone. It is reported that passengers will be able to travel from the entrance of Terminal 3 to the farthest gate in less than 5 minutes.