The new terminal at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, to be opened on Thursday, is expected to fortify the southern Chinese city's status as an aviation hub.

According to a statement from the airport in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, its new terminal 2 will be the largest in the Chinese mainland.

T2 has international and domestic exit and arrival counters, as well as 58 passenger boarding bridges.

Xiamen Airlines and the foreign-owned Saudia Airlines, Kenya Airways and Garuda Indonesia will be the first carriers to operate in the new terminal, the airport said.

T2, which has 20 self-service outbound channels and another 30 inbound channels, will introduce advanced artificial intelligent measures, including e-channels and a face recognition system, to raise efficiency and simplify exit and entry procedures, according to the statement.

It will take passengers less than 10 seconds to leave and enter the airport via the self-help channels, it added.

Guangzhou Baiyun is the third-busiest airport on the mainland after Beijing and Shanghai. By 2020, it is expected to handle more than 80 million passenger trips a year, as well as more than 2.5 million metric tons of cargo. The airport handled 65 million passenger trips last year.