by Donald Wood
Last updated: 2:30 PM ET, Tue November 24, 2015
It was announced earlier this year that China plans to build the world's largest airport, and details are the project are starting to emerge.
According to The Beijing Times, the new airport will be built in the Daxing District of Beijing, and was designed by Iraq-born British architect Zaha Hadid, who incorporated the theme of a Phoenix into the project.
Deputy Director of Beijing SIA City Holdings Co. Ltd, Wang Baoling, told The Beijing Times that the construction project will have two phases and should reach a capacity of 100 million passengers by 2040.
Los Angeles International Airport is currently the world's largest airport, boasting a passenger capacity of 96 million annually, but Beijing is expected to be bigger when both phases of construction are complete.
The first phase of the construction is expected to be completed by 2019 and will feature four runways capable of handling 45 million passengers annually. In the second portion of phase one, new construction will expand the airport's annual capacity to 72 million passengers by 2025.
The entire construction project is expected to be completed by 2040, when two more runways will be added and capacity should grow to 100 million passengers annually. The facility will also have a freight capacity of four million tons.
The unique Phoenix-inspired shape isn't just ornamental, either, as it is expected to help speed up baggage arrival to 13 minutes and speed up the walk from customs to the boarding gates to only eight minutes.
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