Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3

Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport is the third developing project of the airport management company. The construction of the new terminal building was started on March of 2004 and completed on December of year 2007. Later, the terminal was opened in two stages in which the first opening of trial operations was commended on February 29 of 2008. During the trial operations, only seven airlines consisted of British Airways, El Al Israel Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Shandong Airlines and Sichuan Airlines moved into the terminal. 20 other airlines moved into the terminal when it started full operation by end of March 2008. Terminal 3 is currently houses domestic and international flights mainly from Air China, Oneworld and Star Alliance.

The newly constructed terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport is in fact located in between of the entire eastern runway and new runway. Terminal 3 which designed by a consortium of NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants B.V.), UK Architect Foster and Partners and ARUP is set with overall size of nearly one million square meters. The accomplishment of this huge architecture ensures the Terminal 3 to become of the largest single building airport terminal throughout the world as well as the largest single building architecture within the nation. Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport is larger than the combination of five terminals at London Heathrow Airport with another 17% to spare. Moreover, Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport is also currently the second largest airport passenger terminal building throughout the world. Its title as the largest airport passenger terminal building throughout the world was surrendered to the Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport with size over 1500000 square meters on October 14, 2008.

The Terminal 3 is consisted of T3C, the main passenger building, and two satellite concourses which serve as international departure lounges (T3D and T3E) as well as a complete set of inter-building transportation network. In terms of the naming decision of Terminal 3 was name, letters “A and B” were omitted in order to avoid confusions with the existing Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Generally, T3C is specialized for domestic flights while T3C is dedicated for international flights. T3D which located in between of T3C and T3E used to be serving the charter flights during the Beijing Olympic Games 2008.

The main building of T3C is made up of a total of seven-storey in which five-storey on the ground and two basement levels. The ground floor of T3C is consisted of luggage control section, departure hall and domestic flight VIP lounge while the front lobby of the ground floor is the waiting area of Airport Shuttle Bus. Arrival Hall and the luggage claim hall is situated on the second level of the building; Departure Hall on third level, Ticketing Offices on forth level and Food & Beverages on the highest floor. Terminal 3 is extremely large in size in comparison with the entire Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of Beijing Capital International Airport. In other word, T3D and T3E is in fact the satellite building of T3C. The large size of the terminal building has therefore outcome with a problem regarding the exact traveling distance from the satellite buildings to the main wing of Terminal 3. For the convenience of passengers, an inter-terminal metro service is available to transfer passengers within T3C and T3E. Currently, T3D is closed for operation as T3C and T3E is more than enough to fulfill the entire demand of service.

After Terminal 3 was officially put into service on February 29 of year 2008, Beijing Capital International Airport has therefore become the first airport with three terminal buildings, two control towers and three airplane runways which operating simultaneously throughout China. The airport taxiways of Beijing Capital International Airport have increased from 71 to 137 taxiways while the aircraft parking space has added to 314 from the original figure of 164. The third airplane taxiway of the airport was completed together with the completion of Terminal 3’s construction project. It is planned that metro express network will be constructed between Terminal 3 and Terminal 2 for the convenience of transit passenger as well in coming future. Prior to this, the Airport Express has linked Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 from Beijing downtown within 30 minutes as well. Therefore, the airport Express can be considered as the fastest and the easiest way for passengers to transfer to and forth from Beijing Capital International Airport. Besides being able to avoid from traffic congestion along the Airport Expressway which is common in Beijing, your transfer duration between Beijing city and Beijing Capital International Airport is guaranteed as well.

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