We're a bit embarrassed to admit that today was the first we'd ever heard of Hainan Airlines. We're clearly behind the times on this one, as the carrier is China's fourth-largest and the country's biggest privately-owned airline.
Hainan is now making its first flights to America, with four-times-a-week service between Seattle and Beijing, giving you another non-stop option between the US and the Olympics. (Don't get your hopes up, though: Hainan doesn't use the new Terminal 3.)
For now, Hainan is flying Airbus A330s, but once Boeing finally rolls out the Dreamliner, you'll be able to fly SEA-PEK in carbon fiber bliss.
T3 at Beijing Capital International officially opened today, greeting a domestic flight from Shandong with bouquets before a British Airways flight touched down a few hours later. While officials expect 64 million passengers to pour through this year, so far there are no lines at the nearly 300 check-in counters.
The soft opening today has the terminal hosting six airlines. By March 26, 20 more carriers will move into the building, undoubtedly making things busier.
Even once all those flyers start arriving, there should be enough services to go around. T3 has 64 restaurants and 84 retail outlets, connected by 437 moving sidewalks and a high-speed train. Good thing, that. From end to end, the new terminal stretches more than two miles.
Yesterday we brought you some renderings of the new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International, the massive building that'll be opening to Air China flights soon. But after a little digging, we rustled up these killer photos of the building, taken just a couple days ago.
Beijing-based Tom van Dillen uploaded a bunch of his shots to Flickr, in which you can see workers cleaning up floors, scrubbing down the roof and generally putting the final touches on this ginormous project. The doors open on February 29.
With our Heathrow and JFK obsessions, the new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International almost slipped by us. But we're on the case now, with a gallery of renderings from the project's architects, Foster and Partners. The new building will start trial operations on February 29 and will be up to full speed by March 26.
Air China and other Star Alliance partners will anchor the operations out of T3. The building itself will be almost 2.5 miles long and include a train system for moving passengers between its 120 gates. Once on the ground, travelers will have easy access to the city via a rail link with the Beijing subway.
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