Environmental consultation for new Beijing airport

Members of the public will be able to comment on a new airport in the southern area of Beijing, after details of an environmental evaluation were published Monday - the first time such a document was published.

About 700,000 square meters of terminal floor space and four tracks will be built for the airport, which will be located on the border of Yufa and Lixian towns in Beijing's Daxing district, as well as an area overlapping Guangyang district in Langfang, Hebei Province, said the airport announcement, the Beijing Times reported.

The airport, set to start building this year and be completed in 2018, is 46 kilometers away from Tian'anmen Square, said the announcement.

By 2025, the airport will have handled 72 million passengers, 2 million tons of cargo and 620,000 flights.

The airport is located in an upwind direction of Beijing's main urban areas, which will influence Beijing's air quality, said Wu Dui, a professor with Ji'nan University.

To avoid pollution, the authorities should avoid pursuing larger airports and low-end industries, while clean energy and rail transit should be elements of the airport's infrastructure, said Peng Yingdeng, a member of the urban environment management panel under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Currently, there are mainly two airports for civil aviation use in Beijing. Among them, the Beijing Capital International Airport alone saw 80 million passengers in 2013, up 2.17 percent compared to 2012, making it the second biggest airport in the world, people.com.cn reported.

"The two airports are not enough for the development of the city. The new airport will be built to relieve the traffic pressure of the other two airports," said Peng, who participated in the planning of the new airport.

An airport in the Pinggu district of Beijing will also start expansion this year, The Beijing News reported.