It was a new beginning for the Shenzhen airport Thursday, as it opened its brand new 8.5 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) terminal to the world.
The first take-off was by home carrier Shenzhen Airlines flight ZH9853, bound for Hohhot in Inner Mongolia via Wuhan. It carried 165 passengers, who left at 7.55am.
Soon after opening its doors, the terminal was filled with excited travellers, some of whom looked for their favourite spots to take pictures in the light-filled, 450,000-square-metre hub designed by Italian architects. A minority of passengers complained of mixed up departure gates and missed flights, but were forgiving of initial hiccups:
“It was totally a mess,” said He Yong, one of the passengers. “Everything was wrong. And the communications weren’t working.”
“We already had the boarding pass but were stopped on the way to the plane from the boarding gate. We were told the flight would be delayed until 10.40am,” He said. But 10 minutes after the passengers dispersed, the flight opened for boarding.
The crew made a last call for the missing passengers, but seven of them still missed the flight.
“No one came to give us an explanation. I missed an important meeting because of such a stupid human error and had to wait until 11.30am for another flight,” He said.
“We accepted their excuses and understood it would be not perfect at the first day,” He added.
Flight attendants handed out a mini-plane model as souvenirs during an inauguration ceremony led by Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin and other high-ranking government officials.
The smooth running will be a relief for the Shenzhen Airport operator, which was expected to service around 83,000 passengers in it's first day. To ensure a good start for its staff and systems on the first day, the operator cut the number of flights by 30 per cent and planned to keep cargo and passenger numbers down too.
[Image: A mockup of the new terminal. Via: Fuksas]
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