Hong Kong
CNN
—
China is adding yet another superlative to its aviation roster: the world’s largest airport on a man-made island.
Currently under construction off the country’s northeast coast, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport will eventually cover a 20-square-kilometer (7.7-square-mile) island with four runways and a 900,000-square-meter (969,000 sq ft) passenger terminal, according to an airport statement.
Its operators aim to handle 80 million passengers per year across 540,000 flights, with the first phase due to open in 2035.
“The country’s largest offshore airport is rising slowly from the sea level like the sunrise in the east,” reads a post by Dalian Jinzhou Bay International on Chinese social media platform WeChat.
Once completed, it will become the world’s largest airport on an artificial island, surpassing both Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) and Japan’s Kansai Airport (KIX).
“There have been great challenges to the construction,” Li Xiang, chief engineer of Dalian Airport Construction and Development Co., Ltd., told state-run local media in October, “as the project has complex geological conditions, high drilling difficulty and high demand in quality with a tight construction schedule.”
Dalian, a city of 7.5 million people, has long been a transport hub due to its proximity to Japan and South Korea.
Dalian Zhoushuizi Airport, the city’s international airport that has been operating for nearly a century, has already met its maximum capacity and has been expanded several times in recent years, according to Yicai, a state-linked newspaper.
The city started site selection and demonstration work on the new airport in 2003, but construction only began in earnest a few years ago, according to state-run local media.
New airports are a key part of China’s aviation growth. The country is on track to pass the United States and become the world’s largest air travel market.
Beijing’s second airport, Daxing (PKX), opened to great fanfare on October 1, 2019, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
At the time, Chinese officials said the country would need 450 airports by 2035 to keep up with demand.