Beijing opens $3.6 bln air terminal

　　BEIJING, Feb 29 - Beijing opened a huge new $3.6 billion, Norman Foster designed airport terminal on Friday ahead of the expected influx of millions more visitors coming to this summer's Olympic Games.

　　The impressive new terminal's nearly 3-km (2-mile) long concourse, which is divided into three sections and connected by a shuttle train, will boost capacity at the airport to 76 million compared with the 52 million who used the airport last year.

　　Six airlines will use Terminal 3 initially, including Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways , British Airways and El Al Israel Airlines .

　　More will move in from March 26, including Air China , Lufthansa , Singapore Airlines and other Star Alliance members, as well as Emirates and Air Canada .

　　The terminal is designed to look like a dragon, complete with triangular windows cut into the ceiling as though they were scales.

　　A train will zip people downtown in just under a quarter of an hour and the high-tech baggage system will handle 19,800 bags per hour.

　　The terminal also has special bridges to handle Airbus's giant double-decked A380.

　　It has almost double the number of boarding gates of the old terminals and nearly 300 check-in desks. The terminal has been build to maximise the use of natural light, with walls of glass.

　　But whether or not it can help boost China's notoriously low service standards is still uncertain, and airport officials have admitted they have a way to go before being able to match Hong Kong, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

　　China's civil aviation regulator continues to berate airlines and airports for their poor treatment of passengers and is desperately trying to get them to raise standards ahead of the influx of visitors expected for the Olympics.

　　Beijing airport was ranked only 62nd in 2006 in an Airports Council International survey of passenger satisfaction levels despite being the ninth busiest in the world in terms of passengers handled.