China on Wednesday opened a second international airport in Beijing which may soon compete with the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the US for the title of the world’s busiest airport by passenger numbers.
Around 100 million passengers are forecast to go through the new Beijing Daxing International Airport annually when it runs at its full capacity, said a CNBC report.
The initial capacity of the new airport, which has been built to expand Beijing’s capacity for visitors and alleviate pressure on the main airport, is 45 million passengers. But there are plans to expand the airport’s capacity to 72 million by 2025, and ultimately 100 million, according to the Centre for Aviation.
The existing Beijing Capital International Airport already holds the title of the world’s second-largest airport by number of passengers, according to the Airports Council International.
Experts believe that the new Beijing Airport is likely to take China one step closer to becoming the world’s largest aviation market. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has already said that it expects China to pip the US to become the largest aviation market in about five years. The market is defined by traffic to and from the country, as well as domestic flights within its borders.
According to the earliest data available from the World Bank, just 710,000 passengers were carried in China in 1974. That number has multiplied manifold to 611.4 million in 2018, the World Bank data showed.
Chinese airlines are also solidifying their position in the world aviation market. China Southern and Air China now rank among the 10 largest airline groups in the world, data by the International Civil Aviation Organization showed.
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