Beijing Capital (PEK)

Beijing Capital International (PEK) is the airport that carried China's rise: opened in 1958 as the country's first civil airport, it climbed to become the world's second-busiest, peaking above 100 million passengers in 2019, with Terminal 3, one of the largest buildings ever constructed, opened for the 2008 Olympics as the symbol of that ascent. It remains Air China's fortress hub and the Star Alliance anchor of northern China, 25 kilometers northeast of the capital's center.

Its modern story is a planned diminishment: the 2019 opening of Daxing International split Beijing's traffic between two mega-airports, moving SkyTeam's carriers south and resetting Capital around Air China and its Star Alliance partners at 67.4 million passengers in 2024. The airport that once chased the world's number-one ranking now competes instead on what it kept, the flag carrier, the premium routes and the shortest drive to power in Beijing.

Each airline below links to its AeroTime reference page.

Terminals & infrastructure

Terminal 3, opened for the 2008 Olympics and among the largest buildings on Earth, is Air China's home and the Star Alliance house, while Terminals 1 and 2 handle the remaining carriers after SkyTeam's move to Daxing. Three runways and an express rail link to the city center support a hub deliberately rebalanced around the flag carrier since Beijing became a two-airport system in 2019.