The new Terminal 3 building at Beijing Airport is a centerpiece project for the 2008 Olympics and is designed to relieve the overloaded airport's other two terminals and accommodate expected rapid growth in the number of visitors to Beijing. -- PHOTOS: AP/Greg Baker

View more photos

A Shandong Airlines flight from eastern China touched down shortly before 9.00am, becoming the first commercial service to land at the airport's US$2.7-billion (S$3.8-billion) Terminal Three.

Five airlines began their operations there on Friday, including British Airways and Qantas, with a further 19 moving to complete the transfer on March 25, according to airport officials.

'I am very excited... this is the world's largest terminal building. We are proud of its design and construction,' airport chairman Wang Jiadong told reporters.

Renowned British architect Norman Foster designed the airport to appear like a giant dragon, with a long tail and triangular-shaped skylights that are meant to resemble the scales of the beast.

As with almost anything in modern China, the scale and the numbers behind the new terminal are stunning.

The building runs for 3.25 kilometres and covers 98 hectares of floor space, the equivalent to about 170 soccer pitches.

'To get an idea of the scale, imagine (all five) Heathrow terminals under one roof and then add an extra 17 per cent of floor space,' Mr Foster told the Chinese press this week, referring to London's main airport.

'It has taken Heathrow 50 years to grow to its present scale. In Beijing, the process should be completed in less than five. Here is society changing by the power of 10.'

Indeed, the airport was built in less than four years, using a reported 50,000 workers and without the restrictions of a critical press or public protests that often hold up similar projects in the West.

More than 10,000 people in nine villages were moved off their land to make way for the terminal, while Chinese officials have said at least three workers had died building it.

For the soaring numbers of passengers travelling in and out of Beijing, the new terminal is expected to offer relief from the delays and queues that plague air travel in China.

Beijing airport handled 48 million passengers last year, way above its capacity of 35 million, according to official statistics.

Beijing's hosting of the Olympics in August is expected to boost this number to over 60 million this year, comfortably within the upgraded airport's new capacity of 76 million.

When it is fully operational, it will be able to handle 1,590 take-offs and landings every day carrying about 208,000 passengers.

But analysts believe it will not be too many years before the airport is again running beyond capacity, reflecting a nationwide problem as aviation traffic booms in parallel with China's phenomenal economic growth.

'It should be enough for the Olympics,' Mr Adrian Lowe, a Hong Kong-based aviation analyst at Asian brokerage CLSA, said in regards to capacity.

'But what is going to happen after that? As we understand it, they (Beijing) need another airport. This is happening everywhere in China.

'They do not have the planes, they do not have the airports, they do not have the pilots.'

Civil aviation traffic across China grew 16 per cent last year to 185 million passenger trips, and is expected to increase to 210 million in 2008.

Chinese authorities are desperately trying to keep up, with nearly 100 new airports planned to be built across the country by 2020 at a cost of more than US$60 billion, including the world's highest in Tibet.

Meanwhile, workers are labouring at a feverish pace across Beijing to build other massive projects for the Olympics and beyond.

The national Olympic stadium is due to be finished in April, while an upgraded rail and subway network - including an above-ground line from the airport to the city - is expected to be ready by June. -- AFP