Etihad Airways is the national airline of the UAE. The airline said the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will continue to operate its daily flights, featuring the airline’s innovative cabin designs and products. Beijing’s Daxing International Airport is the largest state-of-the-art airport terminal in the world. 

It is reported that Etihad Airways is the first airline in the region to move to Daxing International Airport. Last October, Abu Dhabi Airports Company partnered with  Beijing Daxing International Airport to boost capital-to-capital link.  

Flights between Beijing and Abu Dhabi was launched 12 years ago. Robin Kamark, Etihad Aviation Group Chief Commercial Officer, said in a statement, “Whilst the spread of COVID-19 has posed a major challenge for all airlines serving China, with a massive drop in demand on key routes, we remain optimistic that the situation will improve by the summer and we continue serving Beijing from Abu Dhabi presently, demonstrating our unwavering support and commitment to our Chinese partners and the China market as a whole.”

Daxing International Airport is the largest single-structure airport terminal and integrated transportation hub in the world. It is equipped with double-deck departure and arrival platforms, in addition to sophisticated technologies such as facial-recognition and  baggage-tracking systems. The airport has introduced environment-friendly initiatives such as carbon reduction policies, solar paneling and rainwater collection for recycle and reuse. 

The post Etihad to transfer all its Beijing flights to Daxing International Airport in June appeared first on International Finance.

The development of the new airport at Daxing has cost China around $11.2 billion, according to reports. Located 46 kilometers south of downtown Beijing, the airport has four runways, parking space for 150 airplanes and a 700,000 square metre terminal building. By 2021, the airport will have the capacity to handle around 45 million passengers annually. This capacity will further increase to 72 million by 2025.

The airport which has officially begun operations, has managed to attract huge attention from the global media because of its sophisticated design, capacity and technological advancement. China Southern Airlines’ A380 flight to Guangzhou was the first to take off from the new airport.

The new airport aims to become one of the top airports in the world with the capacity to handle more than 100 million passengers over the next 10 years.

While China’s massive economy is coping with the US-China trade war, a slowing economy and political unrest in Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping has identified aviation as a key industry to boost the economy.

Besides developing the new state-of-the-art Daxing International Airport, China also plans to have 450 airports across the country by 2035, and also develop a jet which will compete with the likes of Boeing and Airbus.

According to the International Air Transport Association, in the next two decades, passenger capacity in China will
exceed 1.6 billion, which is more than the present population of China.

The post China shows aviation prowess with new airport appeared first on International Finance.