 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.
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