Beijing to start building new airport on Friday

World Today

In this Sept. 15, 2014 photo, a man takes a photo from Beijing capital airport terminal 3 in Beijing, China. China has green-lighted a third airport for the capital Beijing in a bid to reduce congestion and chronic delays.

The Chinese capital will begin building a new airport on Friday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced on Wednesday.

The airport, which will be located in southern Beijing’s Daxing District bordering Hebei Province, has been designed to handle 72 million passengers, 2 million tonnes of cargo and mail, and 620,000 flights in 2025, according to Zhou Laizhen, deputy director of the CAAC.

The international aviation hub will have seven runways, and four of them will be constructed and put into use before 2025, Zhou said.

According to Zhou, the new airport will help relieve congestion at the Beijing Capital International Airport in northeastern Beijing, as its current 400 flights every day and nearly 10 million passengers each year cannot be handled by the airport due to its limited capacity.

The Beijing Capital International Airport was the second busiest airport by passenger numbers in the world last year, behind the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States.

Zhou told reporters that the new airport, a major step in the integrated development of Beijing and its neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, will be constructed on the principles of frugality, efficiency, convenience and comfort. Half of those who go to the airport are expected to use public transportation.

The airport will cost nearly 80 billion yuan (about $13 billion) and take about five years to completeAlso Thursday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that government airstrikes in another Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State group killed over 21 people — including children.

The Observatory said Syrian military aircraft struck two locations in the northern town of Qabassen, including a market, causing the casualties. The death toll was likely to rise because people were still digging through the rubble to find bodies. The strike was also reported by another Syrian monitoring group.

This story is compiled with information from The CCTV News Content.