China: Guangzhou’s new airport terminal opens as passenger numbers soar

Guangzhou’s new 17b yuan (US$2.7 billion) airport terminal opened on Thursday, designed to handle 100 million passengers a year from southern China’s “Greater Bay Area” by 2025. A subway line connecting the city centre of the Guangdong capital with the new terminal at Baiyun International Airport will also start operating. The bay area is China’s most developed region and the economic and business hub includes Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai. Passenger numbers in the region are expected to reach 223m a year by 2020, up from around 175m last year, according to the China Civil Airports Association. It said the level of airport traffic would dwarf that of other bay areas such as San Francisco, New York and Tokyo. Terminal 2 has 397 check-in counters and more than 5,000 car parking spaces and will use facial recognition technology to screen all passengers before they board. The 880,000 sq m facility is expected to be handling 45m passengers a year by 2020. On its first day of operation, however, the new terminal will handle a reduced schedule of about 30 domestic and international flights.<br/>