On Tuesday December 18, Chongqing Jiangbei International airport registered its 10 millionth passenger this year. Zhao Jiangping, director of the airport authority, says it took only three years for the airport to double its passenger volume from 5 million in 2004 to 10 million in 2007.

Last Tuesday, the airport held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a second runway, due by 2010. When complete, the airport will be the only one with two runways in west China.

To cope with passenger demand, the airport is planning a third phase of airport expansion to add a new runway with 3,200m long, expand the domestic terminal hall to 60,000m² and add 41 new aprons. The airport authority has invited several foreign airport design and consultancy companies including NACO from the Netherlands, ADPI from France, Arup from the UK, and SKM from Australia, to tender for the design and planning of the airport expansion project.

The total investment will reach US$446 million (Yuan 3.3 billion) and the airport is expected to handle 25 million passengers by 2015.