A fleet of excavators stands ready to begin construction of Hohhot’s new airport [Photo/people.com.cn]

Construction work on a new airport project located in Hohhot, capital city of North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, began on July 30, according to local media reports.

Officials said a terminal building covering 260,000 square meters, a parking apron, a traffic transfer center covering 50,000 sq m, a giant 95,000 sq m aircraft hangar and auxiliary facilities for maintenance, firefighting and rescue operations are to be built.

Officials said the construction work is in accordance to the overall master plan for the new facility to handle 28 million passengers, 320,000 tons of cargo and mail and 244,000 flight operations in 2030.

The long-term plan will be based on annual projected throughput of 65 million passengers, 800,000 tons of cargo and mail and 511,000 aircraft flight operations in 2050. Officials said that to meet that demand, three terminals -- T1, T2 and T3 -- will be constructed. 

An artist’s impression of Hohhot’s new airport [Photo/people.com.cn]  

The new airport will cover an area of 12.62 square kilometers in total and will cost 23.11 billion yuan ($3.31 billion).

Officials said the Inner Mongolian government and the New Development Bank have signed a 4.2 billion-yuan project loan agreement.

They said that in the current year, preliminary approval procedures for the airport, the design and construction drawings and tenders for work on flight area projects have continued to progress.

Construction will be carried out by China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Co and will take an estimated four years.

Officials said that in July, construction on the main terminal building began and in December 2023, the entire site will be completed for acceptance.

They added that in July 2024, the airport will be ready for operations.