Beijing’s huge new Daxing International Airport is now officially open.
Chinese President Xi Jinping officiated at a ceremony attended by various dignitaries, and the inaugural flight took off with a China Southern Airlines’ Airbus A380 taking flight.
The unique gilded starfish shaped airport will have the code PKX and will eventually be able to handle in excess of 100 million passengers per year.
By next spring flights to 112 destinations globally will take off and land at the airport.
It has cost more than $11.5 billion to construct.
It is still not completely ready, at least for international services.
Customs and immigration operations are not yet ready at the airport, so for the time being it will operate domestic services only.
Passenger operations are mostly automated, tapping facial recognition through each part of the journey through the airport, from check in to security screening and at the departure gate.
