A bird's-eye view of Terminal 3 at Beijing
Capital International Airport, which will be put into trial use
next month. Ma Wenxiao
A second airport will be built in Beijing, a senior official
said yesterday.
Scheduled to open in 2015, the new facility will provide
additional capacity once Capital International reaches its
maximum.
A new, third terminal at Capital will open for testing at the
end of next month.
Yang Guoqing, deputy minister of the General Administration of
Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), said at a press conference there
will be no further large-scale developments at Capital.
He dismissed rumors the second international airport will be
built in Beijing's Daxing district.
"The location of the second airport has not been decided,
because choosing the right location is a very complicated matter,"
he said.
Yang said the economic development strategy of the
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and the pattern of passenger and cargo
flow has to be considered.
The new airport should also not come into conflict with the
existing facilities in Beijing and Tianjin in terms of air space,
he said.
The CAAC is currently conducting a study of several world cities
that have two or more airports, including New York and Shanghai, to
help it decide on the best location, Yang said.
His remarks marked the first time a senior CAAC official has
spoken about the plan to build a second international airport.
The idea for the facility emerged in 2002, after Beijing won the
rights to host the 2008 Olympics.
While the Beijing municipal government and the CAAC suggested
expanding Capital airport to handle the high passenger flow during
the Games, authorities in Tianjin municipality and Hebei province
proposed the development of a new airport within their regions as a
solution.
The central government decided in 2003 on the expansion of
Capital and ordered all works to be completed before 2008, Zhang
Guobao, deputy minister of the National Development and Reform
Commission, said yesterday.
The expanded airport has been designed to handle 76 million
passengers and 1.8 million tons of cargo a year by 2015.
The new third terminal has been billed as the largest and most
advanced in the country, with the 27 billion yuan ($3.75 billion)
investment expected to be recovered in 12 years.
Two areas of the terminal - T3C and T3E - have been completed
and passed system tests last year.
Zhang, who is also chief commander of the airport expansion
project, said the first batch of six airlines, including two
domestic carriers and four foreign ones, will move into T3 on Feb
29. A second batch of 26 airlines, including Air China and 11 Star
Alliance members, will move in on March 26.
A third section of the terminal, T3D, is still undergoing
interior work and will be completed in May, officials said.
The later date is due to work on T3D starting two years after
T3C and T3E, Ding Jiangang, the project's chief designer, said.
On completion, T3D will receive foreign athletes and officials
who arrive in charter flights during the Olympics. This group of
visitors accounts for at least 65 percent of the total number of
foreign guests, Zhang Zhizhong, president of the Capital Airports
Holding Co, said.
Beijing Capital International Airport, built in 1959 and
expanded in 1999, is designed to receive 35 million passengers a
year. But according to official figures, last year it received more
than 52 million.
(China Daily January 31, 2008)
