Construction on a terminal of the new airport in Beijing will start in the last quarter of this year, Beijing Daily reported on Jan 31.

The airport, expected to be put into operation in 2018, will eventually become an international air transport hub and a gate for Asia with a capacity to handle 100 million passenger trips a year, according to Beijing's development and reform commission.

Four runways and a terminal will be built in the first phase of the construction, and construction of the terminal will start in the fourth quarter of the year, the report said.

The airport, located in the southern Daxing district and Hebei province, will have seven runways, including one for military use, and will be able to handle 70 million passengers annually by 2025, according to CAAC News, a newspaper affiliated to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The airport is expected to ease the burden on the Beijing Capital International Airport, the only international airport in Beijing and the world's second busiest, which handled 81.8 million passengers last year.