Beijing Airport ranks world's second busiest

Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) handled some 86.128 million passengers last year, making it the world's second busiest airport after the United States' Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The number of passengers travelling through BCIA was up 2.9 per cent as compared to the previous year, with international passengers reaching 20.73 million in 2014, and rising 4.6 per cent from a year earlier, the airport said in a statement on Wednesday.

In terms of cargo traffic, the airport handled 1.85 million tonnes of cargo last year, an increase of 0.2 per cent as compared to a year earlier, while the number of arriving and departing flights reached 582,000, growing by 2.5 per cent year-on-year in 2014.

Currently, the airport offers services for a total of 96 airways, including 26 local airlines and 70 international and regional airlines, said the statement.

In order to ease congestion at the BCIA, a new international airport costing 79.98 billion yuan (around US$13.11 billion) will be built near the Chinese capital city.

Construction on the new airport began on Dec 26, last year and it is expected to handle 72 million passengers, two million tonnes of cargo and mail, and 620,000 flights by 2025.

It is scheduled to be completed in 2019.