Construction starts on new Beijing airport on Dec 26

BEIJING -- Work will begin on Beijing's new airport on Friday, according to a senior Chinese official.

The international aviation hub will be constructed on the principles of frugality, efficiency, convenience and comfort, Zhou Laizhen, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said on Wednesday.

The airport is designed to handle 72 million passengers, 2 million tons of cargo and mail, and 620,000 flights in 2025.

About half of passengers are expected to use public transportation to reach the airport in southern Beijing's Daxing district bordering on Hebei province. The airport is a major step in the integrated development of Beijing and neighboring Tianjin and Hebei province.

The airport will cost a combined investment of around 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) and take about five years to complete, Zhou said.

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

Due to the limited capacity to handle flights, about 300 flights every day and nearly 10 million passengers each year cannot be handled by the Beijing Capital International Airport, according to CAAC figures.