Beijing Capital International Airport

Beijing Capital International opened in March 1949, months before the founding of the People's Republic, making it the nation's first civil airport of the new era. For decades it remained a modest facility serving state airline CAAC, gaining its first dedicated terminal building in 1980 as China began opening to the world.

Terminal 2 arrived in 1999 alongside the fiftieth anniversary of the People's Republic. Traffic exploded through the 2000s as Chinese aviation deregulated and incomes rose, with Air China making the airport its global hub.

The defining leap came with Terminal 3, designed by Norman Foster and opened in February 2008 ahead of the Beijing Olympics. At completion it ranked among the largest buildings on Earth, its dragon-inspired red roof stretching nearly three kilometers.

Capital vaulted past European and American rivals to become the world's second-busiest airport by 2010, a position it held for a decade, crossing one hundred million annual passengers in 2018 as only the second airport ever to do so. The 2019 opening of Beijing Daxing to the south drew away SkyTeam carriers and relieved pressure, while Capital remains the fortress of Air China and the Star Alliance in northern China.

Beijing Capital operates three runways, two flanking the eastern Terminal 3 complex and one beside the older western terminals, handling waves of domestic trunk flights and long-haul departures. Terminal 3 hosts Air China and most international carriers, with an automated people mover linking its main building to the international satellite; Terminals 1 and 2 handle other domestic operators.

Since Daxing opened in 2019, China Eastern and China Southern have largely relocated, leaving Capital as the Star Alliance stronghold. Tight military airspace around Beijing makes flow management strict, and slot times are among the most coveted in Chinese aviation.