Beijing will have a new starfish-shaped airport in 2019 designed to make it more convenient for arriving passengers to access connecting flights and to get to bus and subway stations, news website caacnews.com.cn, which is affiliated to Civil Aviation Administration of China (CACC), reported Wednesday.
The airport will be located in Beijing's southern Daxing district, which borders Hebei Province.
Construction of the new international airport started in December 2014, with an estimated cost of 79.98 billion yuan ($12 billion), and will take about five years to complete.The government has encouraged private investment in the airport's construction.
By 2025, the airport is projected to service 72 million passengers, 2 million tons of cargo and 620,000 flights annually.
It is expected to meet the capital's rising demand for air transportation and help balance the development of the capital's southern and northern areas, the National Development and Reform Commission said.
About half of passengers are expected to use public transportation to reach the airport, which is a major step in the integrated development of Beijing and neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province.
The current Beijing Capital International Airport, located in northeastern Beijing, was the world's second busiest airport in terms of passenger volume, behind Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The capital airport in Beijing serviced over 83 million passengers in 2013.
Due to its limited capacity to handle flights, about 300 flights daily and nearly 10 million passengers each year are diverted to other airports, according to CAAC.
When the new airport begins operations, a commercial district will be developed within 30 kilometers, with a population of more than 1.5 million.
