A bird's-eye view of Beijing Daxing International Airport. [Photo/VCG]

Beijing Daxing International Airport saw off its first flight after a China Southern Airlines' A380 left the airport at 4:22 pm on Sept 25 headed to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

The flight signaled the beginning of operations at the facility after five years of construction, according to the airport authority.

According to the airport, 66 domestic and overseas carriers including China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Ethiopian Airlines plan to operate out of Daxing airport. Starting in the winter and spring seasons, the airport will serve 116 routes and 112 domestic and foreign destinations.

With four runways, 268 parking bays and a vast terminal building covering 700,000 square meters, the new airport is expected to handle 45 million passenger trips a year by 2022 and 72 million by 2025, with international flights accounting for 20 percent and 40 percent of the total, respectively.

With more runways planned, the new airport will ultimately handle more than 100 million passengers annually. It's aiming to become the busiest airport in the world in the future and lead Beijing to become an international transit hub.