China is building a mega-airport in Beijing that will open in 2019

In China, construction is underway for one of the biggest airports in the world. Beijing Daxing Airport is about 42 miles south of the city center and will be accessible by high-speed train. 

According to Graphic Online's Edmund Smith Asante, who visited the construction site on Monday in the company three full bus loads of local and international journalists, the new airport would take some of the aviation load off the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) in Beijing.

The multi-billion project which begun in December 2014 is located between Yufa Town and Lixian Tang of Beijing Daxing District and Guangyang District of Langfang in the Hebei Province 46km from the Tian’anmen Square and 67km from the Capital Airport.

It is scheduled to be fully completed in 2019 and test flights conducted in October that same year.

Briefing the journalists, the spokesperson for the contractors (Beijing Construction Engineering Group, Beijing Urban Construction Investment and Development Co. Ltd and China Construction 8th Engineering Division Co. Ltd), Mr Zhu Wenxin said the work was being carried out on schedule and it was certain the deadline for completion would be met.

It will cost $12.1 billion to build. The airport will serve 45 million passengers initially, but could eventually serve 100 million.

Below is a picture depicting the current construction stage.