Beijing Capital Airport...at it's peak

Located around 32km outside of the city centre, Beijing Capital Airport may be considered to be a city within itself. Beijing Capital International Airport, at a floor area of 26,340,000 sq ft, is currently the second busiest airport in the world (as of 2011) in terms of passenger throughput behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In fact even though Beijing Capital Airport has had a new terminal and a new runway (Terminal 3 was completed just before the Beijing Olympics), apparently the airport, with its huge size, is not large enough to accommodate the rising number of aircraft movements. Therefore, due to limited capacity at Beijing Capital International Airport, a new airport in Daxing is being planned with construction expected to begin in 2014 and be completed in 2018. The airport will have six runways for civil use and one for military use.

Most of the photos taken below are from Terminal 2. This terminal took over some of the airline movements from Terminal 1, and houses China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Skyteam, Air Koryo, and other domestic and international flights. A gate capable of handling the A380 (gate 21) was also built at the terminal. From here China Southern Airlines operates A380 flights to/from Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong  (at the time of writing). As I found out on one of my many visits to the airport, Terminal 2 can throw a few aviation gems here and there!