Beijing Capital International Airport: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Beijing Capital International Airport (北京首都国际机场 Pinyin: Běijīng Shǒudū Guójì Jīchǎng) is an airport in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Its IATA Airport Code is PEK. The airport is a hub for Air China.

Transportation

The airport used to be remote when it was first created in the early days. Then, a solitary, narrow road served it from the area now known as Sanyuanqiao.

When China started opening up in the 1980s, the airport was full of activity and the tiny, narrow road that used to serve it was tested to the limit. As a result, in the early 1990s, a nearly 20 km. stretch of toll expressway -- the Airport Expressway -- connecting downtown Beijing from the Northeastern 3rd Ring Road at Sanyuanqiao directly to the airport -- was opened.

At least two other expressways linking to the airport are planned before 2008. One of them is a stretch of add-on expressway from the Jingcheng Expressway. Work is due to begin in 2004.

There are currently no light rail or underground routes serving the airport; however, a light rail extension to underground line 13 is in the works and will be completed in time for the 2008 Olympics.

A few bus lines make the trip to the airport, too.

With the incessant influx of foreign visitors and increasing domestic air traffic, the then relatively small airport, expanded in the 1980s, was unable to handle the mass traffic efficiently.

In the 1950s the airport -- the first in the PRC -- was opened. The airport had no modern structures and was just a terminal building. That old building still sits to this day, apparently for the use of VIPs and charter flights.

In late 1999, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, the airport was expanded again. (This is the Beijing airport of today.)

Another, even more ambitious expansion, is in the works, due for completion in time for the 2008 Olympics. This includes a 3rd runway for Beijing airport.

It is very difficult for airlines to get coveted rights into Mainland China. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines want rights into China, but at the last time that rights were given out, they went to Federal Express.

The following airlines fly to Beijing Capital International Airport:

• Air Canada
• Air China
• Air France
• Air Koryo
• Air Macau
• Air Russia
• Alitalia
• All Nippon Airways
• Asiana Airlines
• Austrian Airlines
• Belavia Airlines
• British Airways
• China Eastern
• China Great Wall Corporation
• China National Aviation Company
• China North Airlines
• China Northern
• China Northwest
• China Southern
• China Southwest
• China Yunnan
• Dragonair
• El Al
• Ethiopian Airlines
• Finnair
• Hainan Airlines
• Hina Xinhua Airlines
• Iran Air
• Japan Airlines
• Jat Airways
• Kazakhstan Airlines
• Kirkstan Airlines
• Korean Air
• KLM
• Lufthansa
• Malaysia Airlines
• MALEV Hungarian
• MIAT Mongolian
• Northwest Airlines
• Pakistan International Airlines
• Scandinavian Airlines System
• Shandong Airlines
• Shanxi Airlines
• Shannxi Airlines
• Shenzheng Airlines
• Siberian Airlines
• Sichuan Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• Swiss International Airlines
• Thai Airways International
• Turkish Airlines
• Ukraine International
• United Airlines
• Uzbekistan Airways
• Wuhan Airlines
• Xiamen Airlines
• Zhongyuan Airlines