BEIJING: To fulfill the booming demand for travel, China has started construction on a massive new international passenger airport in Beijing here the other day. Beijing’s current international airport is the world’s second busiest, but also one of the most delayed, with fewer than 20 per cent of commercial passenger flights leaving on schedule according to a 2013 report.
The new facility located in southern Beijing is designed to handle 72 million passengers by annually by 2025, an official told Customs Today. The airport is set to cost 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) and will be completed in around five years, Xinhua said, adding that it will be able to handle 620,000 flights per year.
Travel demand in China has soared as the country has grown to become the world’s second-largest economy and Beijing’s current International airport in the city’s northeast has begun to reach its capacity limits. Beijing International Airport was the world’s second busiest airport in terms of passengers in 2013, Xinhua said, ranking behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States.
