beijingwalker
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2011
- Messages
- 65,195
- Reaction score
- -55
- Country
- Location
Worlds biggest airport set to open in Beijing in 2017
AFP
October 15, 2012
AFP
October 15, 2012
Master plans for the new mega airport in Beijing were released Thursday by Dutch Airport Consultancy firm NACO. Located just outside Beijing, it will have capacity for 130 million passengers per year, 23 million more than JFK and London Heathrow combined.
The new airport will
provide a second hub for the city, whose current airport handles almost 75 million passengers a year. The current airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, will be reaching its capacity within a few years.
The new airport, to be called Beijing Daxing International Airport, is scheduled to open in 2017. The recently released plans show a new hub that will cover 55 square kilometers (about 21 square miles) and include eight runways.
Plans also show an integrated ground transportation hub, which will shuttle passengers into Beijing with a journey time of 30 minutes on a high-speed railway. A slower route on the city's underground will also be available.
Atlanta is currently the busiest airport in the world, transporting more than 89 million passengers per year, followed by Beijing's current airport which transports more than 73 million passengers and Heathrow which transports around 65 million passengers.
NACO is one of the world's leading independent airport consultancy and engineering firms. In recent years the firm has been involved with over 550 airports of all sizes in more than 100 countries.
Recently NACO has collaborated with Viracopos-Campinas International Airport in Brazil which processed 7.5 million passengers in 2011 and is expected to grow to 15 million.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, another of the firm's projects, is frequently named as "the best airport in the world." NACO has been working on its development since 1960. Recently the firm assisted the airport expand its capacity from 18 million to 48 million passengers annually.
The new Beijing airport is larger than the island of Bermuda. Photo: AFP