A bird's-eye view of Beijing Daxing International Airport. [Photo/VCG]
Flight MU2731 departed from Wuxi Sunan Shuofang International Airport at 7:55 am on Aug 25 for Beijing Daxing International Airport, marking the official opening of the route between Wuxi and the new airport.
China Eastern Airlines has been operating the flight every day since Tuesday. Flight MU2731 departs from Wuxi at 7:55 am and arrives in Beijing at 10 am, while flight MU2732 departs from Beijing at 11:10 am and arrives in Wuxi at 1:15 pm.
All four daily flights from Wuxi to Beijing take about two hours. The other three flights from Wuxi to Beijing all arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport, according to officials.
Officials said China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will move 40 and 51 flights, respectively, to Daxing airport, part of a new round of flight transfers from the Beijing Capital International Airport to the new airport this year.
Once the round of flight transfers is complete, Daxing will serve 440 domestic air routes and 136 Chinese cities. Over 87 percent of Beijing flights operated by China Eastern Airlines will be to or from the new airport, with over 280 flights offered every day.
Beijing Daxing International Airport opened for flights in September 2019. The new aviation hub, located 46 km south of downtown Beijing, is shaped like a phoenix spreading its wings. Its passenger and cargo throughput is expected to reach 72 million people and two million tons by 2025, with 620,000 takeoffs and landings.