China’s top economic planner has approved a plan by China Eastern Airlines worth 13.2 billion yuan (over 1.9 billion US dollars) to build a base at a new airport under construction in Beijing.
The base will cover 1.17 million square meters, and 30 percent of the investment, or 3.96 billion yuan (570 million US dollars), will be funded by China Eastern, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on its website.
The remaining 9.24 billion yuan will be financed by domestic bank loans, the statement added.
Construction work of Beijing's new airport is underway. /CFP Photo
According to The Paper, a Shanghai-based newspaper, the base will serve as the "core strategic hub" of China Eastern Airlines, alongside an establishment of a Beijing-Shanghai air traffic web.
The Chinese airline has also decided to rearrange its strategy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region after the announcement of establishing the Xiongan New Area, channeling more resources to the construction of the transportation structure between the new airport and Xiongan.
China Eastern’s rival carrier, China Southern Airlines, will also relocate to the new airport from its existing base in Beijing Capital International Airport, the airport project managers told reporters last year.
A computer-generated image of Beijing's new airport in Daxing District. /CFP Photo
China Southern Airlines will also gradually deploy a minimum of 200 airplanes to the new airport.
China Eastern and China Southern are expected to handle 40 percent of the new airport’s footfalls.
The new airport, located in Daxing District in southern Beijing, is expected to be completed by 2019, with an annual handling capacity of 45 million passengers, with four runways, before the expansion for 100 million passengers.
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