The new Beijing Daxing International Airport is counting down to the date of its completion. Located on the border between Beijing's southern Daxing District and Langfang, North China's Hebei Province, the mega-airport, which may become the world's largest airport, is expected to be fully built by the end of June and begin operations in September. Photo: VCG

The first phase of Beijing rail transit's new airport line, as one of the support facilities for the Beijing Daxing International Airport, launched trial operation on Saturday. It's scheduled to start official operations at the end of September, according to media reports.

With a top speed of 160 kilometers per hour, it only takes 19 minutes to make the entire 41.4-kilometer trip, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

Hailed as a "new milestone in Beijing's rail transit program, the new airport line adopts the world's highest standards of autonomous driving ... including the whole process of automatic starting, self-inspection, operations and dormancy," according to Xinhua.

The line, which is also an important factor in driving the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the new airport line will accelerate economic integration of the area, according to Xinhua, citing comments of Yang Guangwu, chief engineer at the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office.

Located in the center of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei triangle area, the Beijing Daxing International Airport aims to boost economic vitality of areas surrounding Beijing and cultivate a world-class airport cluster together with other airports in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province, according to People's Daily in May.

The airport's terminal complex has a total area of 1.42 million square meters. The airport aims to handle 72 million passenger trips and 2 million tons of cargo and mail by 2025, with 620,000 aircraft movements by 2025, reported CCTV.com in February.


Newspaper headline: Rail route serving Beijing’s new airport starts operations