Chengdu, the largest city in southwest China, has received regulatory approval to build a 69.3 billion yuan (HK$87.7 billion) airport, marking the country's second major airport investment in less than a year.
The new Chengdu facility will have three runways, capable of handling 40 million passengers on completion in 2025, the official Sichuan Daily said yesterday.
Passenger volumes have been growing at a rapid clip on the mainland, where airports handled more than 754 million passengers in 2013, up 11 per cent from 2012 and 86 per cent from five years earlier, official data shows, leading to congestion.
In December, Beijing started construction on a US$14 billion international airport capable of handling 72 million passengers and two million tonnes of cargo annually.
Chengdu's existing Shuangliu International Airport, built in 1938, is the fifth busiest airport in the country and serves as a hub for inland destinations for such carriers as Air China, AirAisia X and Korean Air Lines among others.
Passenger throughput at the Shuangliu facility increased 12.8 per cent to more than 37 million last year, more than doubling the volume of 13.9 million in 2005. It could reach its designed capacity of 40 million as early as next year, according to some estimates.