A feasibility study for an 80 billion yuan (HK$101 billion) airport in southern Beijing has been formally approved by the country's economic planner. According to the study endorsed by the National Development and Reform Commission, the project will be built over the next five years and be capable of handling 72 million passengers, two million tonnes of cargo and mail, and 620,000 planes a year by 2025. The international airport will be built in southern Beijing's Daxing district, which borders Langfang , Hebei province . Its official name has not been announced. It will feature four runways, 150 parking spaces for passenger jets and 24 spaces for cargo planes. The terminal building will cover 700,000 square metres. The Civil Aviation Development Fund will provide 1.8 billion yuan of the funding and Capital Airports Holding will provide 6 billion yuan. The rest will come from private capital, bank loans and central government investment. The airport is meant to balance development in the north and south of Beijing. Beijing Capital International Airport, in northeast Beijing, was the second-busiest airport by passenger numbers in the world last year, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. The Daxing airport was approved by the State Council and the Central Military Commission in 2012.
