Beijing’s Capital Airport, which handles all but a fraction of the city’s air traffic, started the 2000s nowhere to be found on Airport Council International’s annual list of the world’s 30 busiest airports. By 2005, it ranked No. 15, growing passenger traffic a torrid 18% that year, with domestic traffic alone up 19%. Five years later, Beijing had jumped to the No. 2 spot in the world, where it sits today, behind only Atlanta. Last year alone, Beijing airport welcomed more than 86m passengers, more than double its total a decade earlier.
