China names new Beijing intl airport

The Civil Aviation Administration of China on Friday officially named Beijing’s new airport Beijing Daxing International Airport, and it will be open to air traffic before September 30, 2019.

The project has progressed smoothly since it was approved in November 2014, according to a statement on the administration’s website.

About 93 percent of the groundwork has been completed, and the airfield project will be completed by May 2019.

The terminals are now undergoing interior decoration and the installation of electromechanical equipment, with the interior to be completed by April 2019, the administration said.

The airport, located 46 kilometers south of downtown Beijing, is designed to take pressure off the overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) in the northeastern suburbs. It will be located at the junction of Daxing district and Langfang, a city in North China’s Hebei Province, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Ninety-six million passengers passed through the BCIA in 2017.

The new airport will have seven runways and can accommodate 620,000 flights per year. It will eventually be able to handle up to 100 million passengers and 4 million tons of cargo and mail each year.

The projected airport is 67 kilometers away from the current BCIA. China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will be its main carriers.