Beijing's new airport to be surrounded by forest

BEIJING -- Beijing's new international airport, which is set to be operational this year, will be an airport in the forest, district officials said Sunday.

The Beijing Daxing International Airport is located 46 km south of downtown Beijing. It sits at the junction of Beijing's Daxing District and Langfang, a city in neighboring Hebei Province.

Forest will cover 17,866 hectares of surrounding areas of the new airport, officials said at the on-going Daxing district people's congress.

Decoration work is under way for the interior of the hub. Highways leading to and out of the airport are under construction.

The airport is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.

The new airport is aimed at taking pressure off the overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport in the northeastern suburbs, which handled over 100 million passengers last year, the world's second busiest airport in passenger traffic.

China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will be the main carriers at the new airport. Overseas airlines can choose which airport to use or operate in both airports, according to the CAAC.