Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) is expected to
become one of the world's top five busiest airports by the end of
next year.
BCIA said that it will have seen more than 64 million passenger
departures and arrivals by the end of 2008, the People's
Daily overseas-edition reported Thursday.
Since the beginning of this year, the only international airport
of the Chinese capital handled 50 million passengers as of 10:40
a.m. Wednesday, ranking it among the world's top 10 busiest
airports.
Atlanta and Chicago of the U.S., London of the U.K. and Tokyo of
Japan have the world's busiest airports by both passengers and
cargo volumes in past years, latest available statistics show.
A new terminal building is now under construction, largely in
order to meet high demands of air transportation during the Olympic
season next year.
With No. 3 Terminal being completed in February 2008, the three
terminals of the airport would have a total annual transport
capacity of about 82 million passengers, the newspaper said.
Besides the terminal construction project, BCIA has invested
nearly two billion yuan (266 million U.S. dollars) in upgrading its
security checks, service counters, luggage systems and information
systems.
The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), a
regulator oversees China's air transportation, released earlier
that it has proposed to build a second international airport in
southern suburbs of Beijing.
The proposals are now reviewed by the National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC) and the final decision will be made by the
State Council.
The second international airport, proposed to begin building in
2010 in Daxing District, is expected to alleviate already
overheated ground traffic to BCIA and accommodate much more
transcontinental flights to China in the years to come, a CAAC
official said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2007)
