China has announced a plan to build a new airport in the country to be opened in 2018. The move was to address the continuing growth in the country’s travel industry.

The airport was reported to cost CNY86 billion and would be located in the southern part of China.

The new airport facility was proposed to be constructed bordering Hebei province. The airport would cater to 72 million passengers and 2 million tons of cargo yearly. This was according to a data posted last week on the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s website.

Like Us on Facebook

The proposal was for the new airport to have four runways in its first phase. It would also handle the same amount of passengers as the existing airport. The plans also have provisions for three additional runaways.

The Beijing Capital International Airport was constructed in 1958 and has been operating even beyond its designed capacity. The airport has been intended for 80 million passengers annually but in 2013, it has catered to 83 million visitors.

The Capital Airport has been the main gateway of the country to the world. It is also home to China’s flag carrier and connects dozens of local flights.

The official data of the country shows that the airports in China have handled more than 754 million passengers in 2013. This was 11 percent more than the visitors that came in the country in 2102 and 86 percent from five years ago.

Meanwhile, the congestion in China’s airports along with flight delays have been predicted to go worse as manufacturers’ estimated that one new plane will fly every other day in the next two decades.

The country has already undergone several major expansion programs in the recent years including building one of the biggest passenger terminals in the world.

However, the airport continued to struggle in meeting the demands of the travel industry.

TagsBeijing Capital International airport, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Guangzhou