China’s economic planning arm, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has reportedly approved the feasibility study on Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, clearing the way for the start of construction work. The new facility, located 50km southwest from Chengdu, will be the city’s second airport, making the capital of Sichuan province the third Chinese city, after Shanghai and Beijing, to have two commercial airports.

The $10bn project includes six runways and two 1.26 million-square meter terminals. It will be capable of accommodating large widebody aircraft, including the Airbus A380. The first phase, due to open in 2019, features three runways and two terminals, with a capacity of 40 million passengers and 700,000 tonnes of cargo. Capacity will subsequently more than double, to 90 million passengers, with the addition of two terminals and three runways.

France’s ADP Ingénierie, in association with Chinese partners, was selected for the master plan and the architecture of the first terminal in September 2015. The Chinese partners are China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute, and China Airport Construction Group Corporation.

The subsidiary of the French airport group is currently involved in multiple airport architecture and engineering projects in Asia, including an extension to Terminal 1 at Hong Kong International Airport, in partnership with Meinhardt. It has also been selected to audit future development projects at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and to conduct upstream studies in South Korea concerning expansion of Jeju International Airport and construction of a new airport in Youngnam. The French firm also won the architecture competition to design Beijing’s new International Airport.