BA bets on Beijing's brand new airport to tap China's aviation boom

BA is going all-in on Beijing's massive new airport in a bid to increase its foothold in China's fast-growing aviation market. The UK carrier Wednesday announced it would be the first international airline to move its Beijing base to the new Daxing airport, slated to open in September. Daxing expects to handle 100m passengers a year by 2040. China is set to overtake the US as the world's largest aviation market by the mid-2020s as consumers become wealthier, according to a forecast last year by the IATA. The total number of air travelers in the country could jump to 1.6b a year by 2037, from 600m in 2017. China is responding to the rising demand by building hundreds of new airports. Government officials estimate China will need 450 over the next 16 years, up from 235 at present. Beijing's Daxing airport is one of the most high-profile projects. The new airport in China's capital city aims to take some of the pressure off Beijing Capital International Airport, which was built with a capacity of 82m passengers but regularly handles 100 million. BA will move all operations to Daxing soon after the airport is up and running, starting with direct flights between Beijing and London's main airport, Heathrow, from October 27. The airline said the move will help it increase air travel between the UK and China. Its local codeshare partner, China Southern Airlines — China's biggest state-owned carrier — is also planning to move to Daxing. Other foreign carriers have already committed some operations to Daxing, with Finland's Finnair and Poland's national carrier LOT Polish Airlines both announcing new flights to the hub in recent weeks. Chinese state-run carriers Air China and China Eastern will also operate from both Beijing airports.<br/>