Beijing Capital International Airport

Beijing Capital International Airport
PEKZBAA

Beijing Capital International Airport

Beijing, China · Asia
Asia Asia/Shanghai IVCA 59.5
218direct destinations
52airlines
3runways
3,800 mLongest runway
1958opened

Beijing Capital International Airport (IATA: PEK, ICAO: ZBAA) is the busier of the two international airports serving Beijing, the capital city of China (the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport). The airport is located 32 km (20 mi) northeast of downtown Beijing, in an exclave of Chaoyang and the surroundings of that exclave in suburban Shunyi. The airport is owned and operated by the Beijing Capital International Airport Company Limited, a state-controlled company. The airport's IATA Airport code, PEK, is based on the city's former romanized name, Peking. The facility covers an area of 1,480 hectares (3,657 acres) of airport property. It was opened in 1958.

Location

Mapa

40.077°N, 116.597°E · 35 m s. n. m. (116 ft)

General data

CountryChina
CityBeijing
Coordinates40.077°N, 116.597°E
Elevation35 m s. n. m. (116 ft)
Time zoneAsia/Shanghai
Longest runway3,800 m
OperatorAdministración de Aviación Civil China
Opened1958
Direct destinations218

Runways · 3

01/19
Length3,800 m12,467 ft
Width60 m197 ft
SurfaceConcrete
Lighted✓
18L/36R
Length3,800 m12,467 ft
Width60 m197 ft
SurfaceAsphalt
Lighted✓
18R/36L
Length3,200 m10,499 ft
Width50 m164 ft
SurfaceAsphalt
Lighted✓

Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.

Radio frequencies · 13

Tower

118.500BEIJING EAST TWR118.600RWY 01/19 TWR124.300BEIJING WEST TWR

Ground

121.700GND EAST121.900GND WEST

Clearance delivery

121.600BEIJING DEL

ATIS (automatic information)

127.600BEIJING ATIS

Approach

119.600BEIJING APP AREA 1119.700BEIJING APP AREA 4120.600BEIJING APP AREA 3121.100BEIJING APP AREA 6126.100BEIJING APP AREA 2127.750BEIJING APP AREA 5
Look for a live feed on LiveATC External site; not every airport has a feed.

Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.

History

Beijing Airport was opened on 1 March 1958. The airport then consisted of one small terminal building, which still stands to this day, apparently for the use of VIPs and charter flights, along with a single 2,500-meter (8,200 ft) runway on its eastern side, which was extended to 3,200 meters (10,500 ft) in 1966 and 3,800 meters (12,500 ft) in 1982 respectively. In 2013, Beijing Capital International Airport handled 83.7 million passengers, making it the second busiest airport in the world that year. Prior to 2003, it had not ranked among the world’s 20 busiest airports. In late 1999, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, the airport underwent a new round of expansion. Terminal 2 opened on 1 November of that year and Terminal 1 was temporarily closed for renovation. 20 September 2004 saw the opening of the renovated Terminal 1 which, at that time, only handled China Southern Airlines' domestic and international flights from Beijing. Other airlines' domestic and international flights still operated in Terminal 2. More expansion began in 2007. A third runway opened on 29 October 2007, to relieve congestion on the other two runways. Terminal 3 (T3) was completed in February 2008, in time for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The significant expansion included a rail link to the city center. At the time of its opening, Terminal 3 was the largest airport passenger terminal building in the world by floor area. The expansion was largely funded by a 30 billion yen loan from Japan and a 500-million-euro (US$625 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The loan was the largest ever granted by the EIB in Asia, and the agreement was signed during the eighth China-EU Summit held in September 2005. Following the 2008 Summer Olympics and the addition of adding the new terminal building, Beijing Capital overtook Tokyo Haneda as the busiest airport in Asia based on scheduled seat capacity. Due to limited capacity of Beijing Capital International Airport, plans were announced for the construction of a new airport at Daxing. The project was given final approval on 13 January 2013. Construction began in late 2014 and was completed in 2019. The new Daxing Airport became the Beijing home of China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and China United Airlines, while Air China and Hainan Airlines remained at Capital.

Photo: Calvin411 · CC BY 4.0 · view original

Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK

MLA

“Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_pek,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-15},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PEK |title=Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}