China offered a first glimpse into the world’s biggest airport terminal yesterday and admitted that the £1.8 billion colossus will soon be too small to cope with demand.

The new Terminal 3 will allow 90 million passengers to pass through Beijing Capital International Airport by 2012. That compares with the 67.7 million currently handled by Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport.

The building, designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank, is on one of the largest construction sites on Earth. At the height of the project 50,000 workers were hammering and welding on site, pouring 1.8 million cubic metres (400 million gallons) of concrete and using half a million tonnes of steel.

The terminal’s soaring golden roofs, scattered with raised triangles to resemble a dragon’s scaly back, and monumental red pillars pay homage to Chinese imperial architecture. Its 790m-wide (2,600ft-wide) roof, Cana-dian-built automatic mass-transit system and 60km (40 miles) of baggage carriers are testimony to Beijing’s determination to have the most modern facilities – whatever the cost.

Terminal 3 has taken less than four years from start to finish – Britain needed more than that just to debate building Terminal 5 at Heathrow. It will cover nearly a million square metres (10.8 million square feet), dwarfing the 400,000 or so square metres of Terminal 5.

Yet, although it will reduce pressure on the limited resources of Beijing, it will not be enough. Zhang Zhizhong, general manager of Beijing Capital Airport Holdings, said that a working group had been set up last year to choose the site for a second airport for the city. It will be one of 48 being planned across the country.

He admitted that air traffic growth in China was rapidly outpacing forecasts of 14 to 15 per cent for the period from 2006 to 2010. In the first half of this year growth hit 19 per cent, and aviation authorities have raised safety concerns. Mr Zhang said: “The challenge we face for safety is rather big.”

Beijing airport has leapt from No 15 in the world, in terms of passengers, in 2005 to No 9 last year and is now in eighth position. Mr Zhang said: “We often hear people say that the civil aviation administration of China is lucky and we admit that, but we are making huge efforts and huge investment in safety.”

China has had no big accidents for three years, but in the previous few years reported several disasters. The civil administration said recently: “A major reason for having nine accidents between 1992 and 1994 was growth had been too rapid for the industry to cope with flight safety.”

In the four years to 2000, China pressed into service 111 new aircraft. Between 2001 and 2005 it added 336, and expects an increase of 725 by 2010 that will expand its fleet to nearly 2,000. Terminal 3 is scheduled to open in February. Officials said that it was too early to set a date for its first flight.

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