Terminal 3 Poised for Take-off

The construction of the Beijing Capital International Airport’s Terminal 3 (T3) is

nearing its end.

The key project in Beijing’s massive transportation infrastructure improvement

programme, which was begun in 2004, entered its final construction stage in July.

The whole project will be completed in December 2007 and will be put into test

operation in February 2008.

T3, is part of the capital airport’s 27 billion yuan

(US$3.5 billion) expansion project. Upon completion

in 2015, the airport will be able to handle 60 million

passengers per year, the limit of its planned capacity.

Terminals T3A and T3B, along with T3C that

connects them, constitute the main structure of T3,

which covers an area of 986,000 square metres, more

than the total area of T1 and T2 combined. Seventythree

parking spaces for planes will be added to the

airport’s inventory, along with a third runway that can

accommodate the world’s largest aircraft such as

the Airbus A380. As two Chinese characters “人”

resting head to head, T3A, on the south, will be used

for domestic flights while T3B, on the north, will handle

international flights.

A 300,000-sq.m transportation centre is located

at T3’s front. Up to 7,000 car parking spaces will be

available if the two-level underground parking lot is fully

employed. The transportation centre will have three

reserved lanes for different types of vehicles?tm)airport

buses, taxies and private vehicles?tm)which will enable

a smooth flow of passengers. People bound for T3

will exit their vehicles here and enter T3 via an aisle

within five minutes. The transportation centre will also

have a light-rail station on a line that begins at the

Dongzhimen stop on the Beijing Subway in Central

Beijing. Travel time from Dongzhimen to T3 will be

about 18 minutes.

User-friendly designs are widely used at T3. There

will be electrical outlets on either end of every row

of seats in the terminal. There will be 243 elevators,

escalators or moving foot paths; and every ordinary

restroom is accompanied by a mothers’ room where

diapers can be changed. There is also a room for

travellers with disabilities.

But there are more mysteries to unfold at T3:

Highlight One:

The Luggage System

One of T3’s highlights is its US$240 million

luggage-transfer system.

Looking like an underground

rollercoaster, the luggage system is

equipped with yellow carts, each of which

has a unique code, matching the bar code

on every piece of luggage loaded on it,

allowing easy and accurate tracking. More

than 200 cameras will be used to strictly

monitor activities in the luggage area; all

blind spots have been eliminated.

The system can handle 19,200 pieces

of luggage per hour. After luggage is

checked in at any one of the 292 counters

at T3A, they can be transferred at the

speed of ten metres per second. Even for

international routes, luggage can travel

from T3A to T3B in five minutes. Arriving

passengers should be able to begin

retrieving their luggage within 4.5 minutes

after airplanes are unloaded, greatly

reducing passenger waiting times.

The system provides more security.

Along with X-ray scanners, additional

equipment was employed to conduct

sophisticated checks such as explosive

trace checks. Manual examinations can be

used if a piece of luggage is found suspect.

Passengers will be able to check in their

luggage at the airport several hours or even

a day before their flight. The airport will

store them in its luggage system and then

load them on the correct airplane.

How will T3 Look?

A 98.3-metre monitoring tower stands

at the southern end of T3, the highest

building at the airport. The roof of T3 is red,

the traditional Chinese colour for good luck.

The terminal’s ceilings use white strips for

decoration and to indicate directions. All

the strips are southnorth oriented, so that

people don’t get lost. Under the white strips,

the basic colour of the ceiling is orange

with light to dark tones indicating where a

passenger is inside the building. It is light

orange in the centre and deepens as it

extends to the sides in T3B and is the other

way round in T3A.

The roof of T3 has dozens of windows to

let in daylight. Light angles can be adjusted

to ensure adequate interior lighting.

Many traditional Chinese elements will be

employed in the terminal’s interior decoration,

including a “Menhai,” a big copper vat used to

store water for fighting fires in the Forbidden

City, and the carvings imitating the famous

Nine-Dragon Wall (Jiulongbi).

An indoor garden will be constructed

in the T3B waiting area, in the style of

imperial gardens such as the Summer

Palace. In T3A, a tunnel landscape of an

underground garden has been finished with

plants on each side so that passengers can

appreciate them inside the mini-train.

Time to Eat: What is the Cost?

The T3 food-service area is called a “global

kitchen,” where 72 stores will provide food

ranging from formal dishes to fast food, from

Chinese to western, from bakery goods to

ice cream. Airport officials have promised

that people who buy products at the airport

will see the same prices as in Central Beijing.

In addition to food and drink businesses,

there will be a 12,600-sq.m domestic retail

area, a 10,600-sq.m duty-free-store area

and nearly 7,000-sq.m convenience service

area, including banks, business centres,

Internet services and more. At 45,200 sq.m,

the commercial area will be twice the size of

Beijing’s Lufthansa Shopping Centres.

 

How to Get from T3A to T3B?

Both domestic and international travellers will

have to get boarding passes at T3A, but international

passengers have to board from T3B. The two-kilometre

trip between the two buildings is too long for walking,

so the airport will have a mini-train that shuttles between

the two. Passengers can take it for free and get from

T3A to T3B in three minutes.

How to Get from T1 and T2 to T3?

To help passengers that go to the wrong terminal,

the airport will provide bus transportation between T3

and the old terminals for free from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The buses set out every ten minutes from 8 a.m. to 8

p.m., and every 20 minutes during other times.