Construction is underway on a new mega-airport in Beijing that will have nine runways to relieve existing pressure on Beijing’s Capital International Airport (BCIA), according to reports.

Beijing handled 73 million passengers last year, has an annual capacity of 75 million passengers – which has resulted in fears that the city will be at breaking point in two years time.

Beijing Daxing International airport, set to open in 2015, will be Beijing’s third commercial airport, after BCIA and the smaller Nanyuan airport – which was converted from PLA recently.

The Chinese Government previously considered developing the Daxing site to help cater for the 2008 Beijing Olympics traffic. But instead the decision was reached to build the new Terminal Three at Beijing Capital International Airport, designed by Norman Foster.

But China’s continued boom in aviation has resulted in a dramatic increase in passengers that the current facilities can not handle. In 2015, Beijing is expected to handle around 370,000 passengers a day, making it the world’s busiest aviation hub.

Li Jiaxing, the minister in charge of China’s Civil Aviation Administration explained that the schedule is so tight for Beijing that it is impossible to add ‘even one more flight.’

The new 54sq km site, located in towards the south of the city, will serve Beijing, Tianjin and parts of Hebei, according to reports.

Discussions are underway to service the site with a high speed rail link to Beijing city centre as well as Tianjin, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang and Shanghai.

To find out what else is happening in Beijing, visit beijing.city.mobi