New Terminal Building at Beijing Airport Ready for Operation

The newly-built Terminal 3 at Beijing's Capital International Airport is almost ready to go into use, in time for an expected surge in passenger numbers during the 2008 Olympics next August.

Officials say the new terminal building will be opened in two phases, with the first scheduled to start trial operations on February 29th.

Huang Gang, vice president of the Capital International Airport Company, said several simulated rehearsals will be carried out before actual operations begin.

"Rehearsals will be carried out three times in January and three times in February. We are going to check the boarding process and conditions of the facilities. The rehearsals will be carried out according to the actual boarding process."

When the new Terminal 3 - which has an area of around 1 million square meters - is fully operational, the airport will be able to deal with over 80 million passengers a year, as against the present annual figure of 35 million.

Construction of the new terminal building began in 2003 and is just part of massive expansion plans currently underway at the airport. These also include a third runway which is capable of handling the biggest commercial aircraft; 125 more aircraft parking ramps, a new cargo facility; zones for general aviation, including private planes; and affiliated buildings.

The third runway became operational in October, and has already greatly eased air traffic pressure at what is the country's busiest airport.