Beijing Daxing International Airport Relies on Thales and BEST to increase Safety, Capacity and Efficiency of Air Traffic Management

Beijing Daxing International Airport becomes officially operational on September 25. Thales and Beijing EasySky Technology Ltd. (BEST), a joint venture between Thales and Civil Aviation Air Traffic Control Technology & Equipment Development Co. Ltd., are delighted to celebrate this important milestone. This mega-airport relies on Thales and BEST to improve safety support capabilities, expand capacity and enhance the operational efficiency of air traffic management.

The past decade has witnessed a tremendous growth of the aviation activity in China with the number of airline passengers nearly tripling. For Beijing, China’s capital as well as political, economic and cultural center, this trend has been even more challenging, with the existing Beijing Capital International Airport hitting full capacity in 2018. Located 46 km south of downtown Beijing, Beijing Daxing International Airport is designed to relieve the pressure on the existing airport and serves as the capital’s second international airport. It is the world's largest single-terminal airport, covering an area of 700,000 square meters. With seven runways planned, the airport will ultimately handle more than 100 million passengers a year.

As a consortium, Thales and BEST were selected by North China ATMB (Air Traffic Management Bureau) in 2016 to modernize the Beijing Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) Control Center by providing an ATC (Air Traffic Control) automation system which will play a pivotal role in harmonizing the air traffic in this region. The whole project automates Beijing TMA, Beijing Area Control Center (ACC), ATC Towers in Beijing Capital International Airport, ATC Towers in the new Beijing Daxing International Airport, Tianjin Approach and ATC Tower in Tianjin Binhai International Airport. By enabling seamless synchronization with Beijing ACC ATC system, the overall ATC system will become the largest in the world, with a total of 290 controller working positions covering the northern China region.

To support Daxing airport, Thales and BEST delivered TopSky-ATC, the most advanced air traffic management system in the world, to help improve air traffic operation efficiency and improve safety. The system features advanced redundant capability including complete fallback flight data processing and flight plan synchronization, as well as multi-sensor processing and alerting to enable consistent operations.

The Beijing Terminal Maneuvering Area control center is the first in China to deploy Thales MAESTRO AMAN and DMAN technology at the same time to sequence and balance the traffic flow of the airport and airspace. This fully integrated arrival and departure management system helps to reduce flight delays and increase the air capacity. MAESTRO will provide seamless integration between area control, approach control and tower systems – so that all controllers share the same sequence information and can manage airport configuration changes collaboratively, including Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) regulation times. Additionally, it will support the integration of required arrival delay absorption into sector displays to enable efficient traffic sequencing and reduced airborne holding. Furthermore, advanced runway allocation processing will enable efficient airline operations and reduce taxi times.  

Under a very tight schedule, experts and engineers from Thales and BEST worked day and night to support North China ATMB to complete the hardware installation, software integration and on-site acceptance tests for the newly-constructed airport. Leveraging Thales’ leading technology in Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems, coupled with a quick response to customer requirements through the local presence of BEST, Thales has shown excellent project delivery capabilities in securing the smooth operation of the air traffic management for Daxing International Airport.

In addition to the ATC system, Thales also provided navaids and ATM radars to contribute to the safety surveillance and navigation service for airplane take-off and landing at Daxing International Airport.

“Thales congratulates Beijing Daxing International Airport on its official operation. The successful delivery of our ATM systems to North ATMB demonstrates the seamless cooperation between Thales, BEST and ATMB. Thales has been partnering with China aerospace industry on traffic management technology since the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China. The Group is proud of its history in the country and of having helped the growth of Sino-French cooperation in aerospace. Thales’s long-term engagement in China is once again reaffirmed. The Group is a committed, and key partner in China’s journey to becoming a more digitalized and innovative country.”

Jérôme Bendell, Vice President, North Asia and CEO of Thales in China

Ensuring the safety and efficiency of 60% of China’s air traffic, Thales has deployed 43 radars, 20 ATC automation systems (including 12 provided by BEST), more than 677 navaids, as well as one set of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts (ADS-B) and two multilateration systems in the country. With its digital transformation, Thales commits to delivering more innovative and cyber-secured technologies to empower China’s civil aviation industry’s booming future development.