The new Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, one of the major gateways to the outside world in south China, will be completed by October this year.

So far, much of the infrastructure for the new airport has been finished and survived assessment.

Test flights at the new airport will be conducted late this year, and will begin regular service next June, said an engineer in charge of the construction.

The new airport, designed by Parsons Corp. and URS Greiner Corp, both of the United States, and the Guangdong Provincial Architectural Design Institute, can accommodate the world's largest planes, such as the Boeing 747.

Located in the city of Huadu, the new facility will cover an area of 1,456 hectares, about four times the size of the existing Baiyun Airport, which situated in the suburbs of Guangzhou and has long been overburdened by increasing passengers and cargo.

The cost estimate of the new airport is 19.6 billion yuan (US$2.36 billion), 49 percent of which will be covered by the Guangzhou Transport Investment Co. Ltd. The first- phase construction will cost about 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion).

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