(Yicai Global) March 31 -- China's aviation regulator has decided that Chongqing's second airport will be located in Bishan district, about 50 kilometers away from the city center.

The airport will have a handling capacity of around 70 million to 80 million passengers per year, making it an important international aviation base for the southwestern city and a cargo hub, the district government announced yesterday.

Industry insiders predicted in interviews with Yicai Global that the project will start construction in 2026 at the earliest since it takes time to finish feasibility studies, per Li Yanwei, deputy director of the China Civil Aviation High-Quality Development Research Center.

The city's first airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, is not big enough for the future economic and social development of the region, so it is necessary to build another airport, Li added.

The Jiangbei hub had a throughput of 44.8 million passengers in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic, ranking ninth nationwide. As the airport is being expanded, the handling capacity should rise to 80 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo per year by December 2024. By then, 580,000 aircraft can be accommodated annually.

Chengdu, another city in southwestern China, opened its second airport called Tianfu International Airport in 2021, becoming the nation's third city to have two such transport hubs after Shanghai and Beijing. But the group is becoming larger as Yunnan province's Kunming, Zhejiang's Hangzhou, Henan's Zhengzhou, and Shaaxi's Xi’an plan to build their second airports, according to public information.

However, some smaller cities’ airports serve travelers of nearby megacities. For example, the Pearl River Delta International Airport, which will be built in Foshan, is designed to act as the second airport for Guangzhou, while Huizhou Pingtan Airport, which is already in operation, is seen as another airport for Shenzhen.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi