Shuttle buses connect the airport's three terminals. Terminal 2 serves
Hainan Airlines and
SkyTeam with the exception of
China Airlines,
Oneworld member
SriLankan Airlines, and also other domestic and international flights. Terminal 3, the newest terminal, serves
Air China,
Star Alliance,
Oneworld members with the exception of
SriLankan Airlines, plus
SkyTeam member
China Airlines, and some other domestic and international flights that do not operate from Terminals 2.
Terminal 2 Terminal 2 opened on 1 November 1999, with a floor area of . Terminals 1 and 2 are linked by a public walkway that takes about 10–15 minutes to traverse.
Westwing Satellite Terminal (formerly Terminal 1) Terminal 1, with of space, opened on 1 January 1980, and replaced the smaller existing terminal, which had been in operation since 1958. Terminal 1 was closed for renovation from 1 November 1999 to 20 September 2004, during which all airlines operated from Terminal 2. Featuring 16 gates, it was the operational base for the domestic routes of
China Southern Airlines and a few other airlines such as
XiamenAir and
Chongqing Airlines, and was originally planned to handle domestic traffic excluding those to Hong Kong and
Macau. With the opening of Terminal 3, the terminal was closed for light refurbishment, and its airlines were moved to Terminal 2 on 20 May 2008. Terminal 1 reopened for a second time on 27 June 2008, and became the operational base for all domestic flights operated by the
HNA Group including those of
Hainan Airlines,
Grand China Air and
Tianjin Airlines, while all HNA Group's international, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan flights remain in Terminal 2. On 3 May 2020, Terminal 1 temporary closed for reproposing, after Hainan Airlines moved its all domestic routes to Terminal 2. The Terminal 1 was reopened on 1 August 2023 as Westwing Satellite Terminal as part of Terminal 2.
Terminal 3 Construction of Terminal 3 started on 28 March 2004, and the terminal opened in two stages. Trial operations commenced on 29 February 2008, when seven airlines including
El Al,
Qantas,
Qatar Airways,
Shandong Airlines and
Sichuan Airlines moved into the terminal. Twenty other airlines followed when the terminal became fully operational on 26 March 2008. Currently, it mainly houses
Air China,
Star Alliance,
Oneworld with the exception of
SriLankan Airlines, which uses Terminal 2,
SkyTeam member
China Airlines, and other domestic and international flights that are not operated from Terminal 2.
Star Alliance members
LOT Polish Airlines,
Scandinavian Airlines,
Lufthansa,
Austrian Airlines,
United Airlines,
Air Canada,
Turkish Airlines,
Thai Airways International,
Singapore Airlines,
All Nippon Airways,
Asiana Airlines and
Air China use Terminal 3-E as part of the
Move Under One Roof program to co-locate alliance members. Terminal 3 was designed by a consortium of
Netherlands Airport Consultants (NACO),
Foster + Partners,
Arup and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD). Lighting was designed by UK lighting architects
Speirs and Major Associates. The budget for the expansion is US$3.5 billion. Much larger in size and scale than the other two terminals, Terminal 3 was the largest airport terminal-building complex in the world to be built in a single phase, with in total floor area at its opening. At the time of its opening, Terminal 3 was
the largest airport passenger terminal building in the world. Its title as the world's largest passenger terminal was surrendered on 14 October 2008 to
Dubai International Airport's Terminal 3, which has of floor space. On 20 July 2013, a man in a wheelchair detonated small homemade explosives in Terminal 3 of the Beijing International Airport. The bomber, reported to be Ji Zhongxing, was injured and taken to a hospital for his injuries. No other people were hurt. {{Gallery
System, security and luggage Terminal 3 has a transportation hub with a 7,000-car garage. The transportation center has designated traffic lanes for airport buses, taxis, and private vehicles. Travelers bound for T3 can exit their vehicles and enter T3 within five minutes. There is also a station for the
Capital Airport Express of the
Beijing Subway. Terminal 3 has 243 elevators, escalators or moving walkways. One of Terminal 3's highlights is the US$240 million luggage-transfer systems. The luggage system is equipped with yellow carts, each of which has a code that matches the bar code on every piece of luggage loaded and allows easy and accurate tracking. More than 200 cameras are used to monitor activities in the luggage area. The luggage system can handle 19,200 pieces of luggage per hour. After luggage is checked in at any of the 292 counters in Terminal 3C, it can be transferred at a speed of ten meters per second. Hence, a suitcase can travel from T3C to T3E in five minutes. Arriving passengers should be able to begin retrieving their luggage within 4.5 minutes after airplanes are unloaded. Besides X-ray scanners, additional equipment is used to conduct baggage screening. Passengers will be able to check-in their luggage at the airport from several hours to even a day before their flights. The airport will store the luggage in its luggage system and then load it on the correct aircraft.
Appearance The highest building at the airport, a monitoring tower, stands at the southern end of T3. The roof of T3 is red, the Chinese color for good luck. The terminal's ceilings use white strips for decoration and to indicate directions. Under the white strips, the basic color of the ceiling is orange with light to dark tones indicating where a passenger is inside the building. The roof is light orange in the center. The color deepens as the roof extends to the sides in T3E and goes the other way round in T3C. The roof of T3 has dozens of triangular windows to let in the daylight. Light angles can be adjusted to ensure adequate interior lighting. Many traditional Chinese elements will be employed in the terminal's interior decoration, including a "Menhai", a big copper vat used to store water for fighting fires in the Forbidden City, and the carvings imitating the famous
Nine-Dragon Wall. An indoor garden in the T3E waiting area is built in the style of imperial gardens such as the Summer Palace. In T3C, a tunnel landscape of an underground garden has been finished with plants on each side so that passengers can appreciate them inside the mini-train.
Facilities The T3 food-service area is called a "global kitchen", where 72 stores provide food ranging from formal dishes to fast food, from Chinese to Western, and from bakery goods to ice cream. Airport officials have promised that people who buy products at the airport will find the same prices in central Beijing. In addition to food and beverage areas, there is a domestic retail area, a duty-free-store area and a nearly convenience-service area, which includes banks, business centers, Internet services and more. At , the commercial area is twice the size of Beijing's
Lufthansa Shopping Center. The terminal provides 72 aerobridges or jetways and is further complemented with remote parking bays that bring the total number of gates to 150. Terminal 3 comes with an additional
runway. It increases BCIA's total capacity by 72 million passengers per year to approximately 90 million.
Airbus A380 The terminal has gates and a nearby runway that can handle the
Airbus A380. This capability was proven when
Singapore Airlines briefly offered A380 flights to Beijing in August 2008 during the Summer Olympics.
Emirates started its scheduled daily operation to Dubai on 1 August 2010.
Singapore Airlines has been using an A380 since June 2014 and increased to two A380s in 2015.
China Southern Airlines operated two flights to Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei Airport, and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport starting from 2011, 2013, and 2015 before retiring them in 2023.
Lufthansa has been using these facilities since October 2010 to handle up to five A380 flights per week. ==Airlines and destinations==