Construction on Beijing's new airport to start soon

BEIJING -- Construction on a new airport in south Beijing is likely to start before July, local authorities have disclosed.

The new airport is expected to be put into use in 2018, according to Wang Xueqiu, senior political advisor of the northern Chinese city Langfang, where around one third of the airport will be.

The airport will help ease pressure on Beijing Capital International Airport, which remained the world's second-busiest airport in 2013 in terms of passenger throughput. Its passenger volume reached 83.65 million.

Annual passenger volume at the new airport is expected to be 130 million, surpassing that of Atlanta International Airport, currently the world's busiest, said Wang, also a deputy to the National Peolpe's Congress, China's top legislature.

Wang is looking to the new airport to drive development of related industries in the less-developed city amid the country's strategic move to better integrate cities around Beijing.

Beijing and neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei province should coordinate in city planning, environmental protection, industry and market integration to build a functioning urban agglomeration, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a meeting last month.

Guo Jinlong, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, has promised that Beijing will speed up infrastructure building, especially on transport, to integrate growth with neighboring Hebei Province.