Beijing's new airport gears up to welcome four test flights

A bird's-eye view of Beijing Daxing International Airport, which is scheduled to open on Sept 30. [Photo by Li Xiaofan/For China Daily]

Beijing Daxing International Airport plans to welcome four planes on test flight next Monday, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will dispatch flagship models 747-8, A359 and A380, respectively. Meanwhile, Xiamen Airlines will send a Boeing 787 to take part in the test flight.

This comes nearly three and a half months after the airport welcomed the first test plane on Jan 22.

According the plan, these airplanes should arrive at the airport before 10 am. After ground clearance, these planes will take off from runway 01L/19R, 17R/35L and 17L/35R. The whole process will take about one hour.

Currently, preparatory work for the Daxing airport is in full gear, the newspaper said. The new airport's four runways and related taxiways passed acceptance inspection on April 28-30.

Daxing airport's flight inspection, which is a prerequisite for all new airports before-entering service, was completed on Feb 24, 19 days ahead of schedule.

The inspections, which lasted for 34 days, started on Jan 22 and were supposed to last until March 15 covering the airport's four runways, six landing systems, seven lighting facilities and other services.

Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing's second major civil airport, is scheduled to be completed on June 30 and open on Sept 30. It aims to meet the country's surging air service demand and relieve Beijing Capital International Airport from tight flight pressure.

The new airport, which is located at the junction of Beijing's Daxing district and Langfang, a city in neighboring Hebei province, is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025.