Beijing Capital airport: 2017 record, but stays #2 to world busiest Atlanta as Beijing Daxing looms

Such is the growth of the China market that accolades become normal. Beijing Capital International Airport announced its 2017 passenger traffic as a record, but Beijing Capital has set a new record every year since 2004.

The airport handled 95.8 million passengers in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 1.4 million, or 1.5% growth. Beijing Capital had double-digit percentage growth until 2011, and then had growth of 5% or so. While this is slowing, it is from a larger base, although the additional 1.4 million passenger figure of 2017 was the slowest in a decade.

Beijing Capital is the world's second largest airport. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson remains the largest, and the only airport to carry over 100 million passengers a year. Atlanta's traffic has declined by 0.3%, so while Beijing Capital has narrowed the gap with Atlanta, it appears unlikely that it will overtake Atlanta.

From 2019 some airlines at Beijing Capital will move to the new international airport, Beijing Daxing. Their existing Beijing Capital slots will only gradually be made available to other airlines. Beijing city's total passengers will increase, but across two airports.