On February 29 a Shandong Airlines flight touched at Beijing airport shortly before 9am local time. So what you might say. This flight is something special. It goes down in the history books as the first commercial service to land at Terminal Three at Beijing airport.

The new airport built to handle the peak Olympic traffic cost $2.7 billion to construct. And did I mention it is huge. The building runs for 3.25km and covers 98ha of floor space, the equivalent to about 170 soccer pitches. Terminal Three is the largest passenger terminal in the world.

I visited Beijing several years ago and at the time they had a nice new terminal. I expected that was the one for the Olympics. But no, the Chinese quickly built the monster that stands there now. In case the 170 soccer pitches size does not give you a feel for how big it is here is what the designer, British architect Norman Foster said.

“To get an idea of the scale, imagine (all five) Heathrow terminals under one roof and then add an extra 17 per cent of floor space,” Foster told the Chinese press this week.

On opening day there were Five airlines that began their operations, including British Airways and Qantas. By March 25 there should be a total of 24 airlines operating from the new terminal.

The new airport was built in four years with a reported 50 000 workers helping construct the airport. There was nothing standing in the way of the construction of terminal 3. 10 000 plus people from nearby villages were relocated to make way for the air terminal.

I am looking forward to jumping on the cheap flight to Beijing I was able to book last October to see the new Beijing airport when my family and I visit for the Beijing Olympics in August.

Beijing airport is expected to handle 60 million passengers this year. The airport has a capacity of 75 million. Queues which have become common place should be a thing of the past at this new airport terminal in Beijing.