A rail line will be built to connect the airport with the city center, according to a plan approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Passengers will be able to reach the airport within 30 minutes from Beijing South Railway Station with trains running on the 37-kilometer line.

Increasing flight numbers have affected punctuality at Beijing airport, according to media reports.

"Flight delays are frequent," said Iryo Tsukada, a 55-year-old Japanese businessman from Tokyo who travels to Beijing frequently.

"Another airport in the city might provide more options for me."

Yang Yanli, a 26-year-old Beijing accountant, said the airport was too crowded.

"Sometimes you have to line up for a while to take an elevator," she said. "Another airport might ease traffic pressure."

The plan to build a second airport in Beijing was proposed as early as 2008, but the plan was not approved by the State Council and the Central Military Commission until the end of last year, CAAC News quoted Zhu as saying.

"The biggest obstacle to approving building the airport is a dispute in distribution of airspace between civil and military use," Zhu said.

The new airport will be built close to Nanyuan Airport, which is mainly for military use, in the southern suburban district of Fengtai.

Some flights handled at Nanyuan Airport will move to the new airport after it is completed, according to Zhu.

Liu Weimin, the professor at the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, said civil and military use must be coordinated for smooth operations.

The military usually has airspace priority, Li said.

"The current law on civil aviation was made in 1995, and it should be revised after 18 years of tremendous changes in society and rapid economic development," he said.

Liu suggests more rights be given to civil aviation so it can play a bigger role.

"Besides, the new airport and the current one should have a clear division of duty to better serve the customers," he said.

Contact the writer at wangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn

Zheng Xin contributed to this story.

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