The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province says it expects to play a major part in aviation in northeastern China by expanding its Taiping International Airport, with the terminal expected to be open for trial operations soon, covering a more than 2,100-square–meter are, and be available for international flights.

Work on the project began last September and was completed earlier this year and a manager from the Heilongjiang Airport Group, Zhao Lixia, says that the seating and TV monitors for flight information are in place. The expansion project will give the terminal 230,000 sq m of floor space to meet help it handle 180 million passengers, 175,000 tons of cargo and mail, and 141,000 flights annually, by 2020.

File photo of Eastar Jet’s first landing at Harbin’s Taiping International Airport, Heilongjiang province, on Oct 28, 2014. [Photo/my399.com]

The larger expansion project includes a 1,010-meter-long, 45-m-wide viaduct, with work beginning on March 11 and scheduled August 2017 completion, a 130,000-sq-m domestic flight terminal, to be completed by October 2017, as well as an extended runway. The total effort is expected tol cost 4.47 billion yuan ($687.69 million) and to be finished by October 2019.

Last year, Heilongjiang handled more than 40 domestic and foreign airlines with 219 regional and international routes linking the city of Harbin to 96 destinations in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Taiping International Airport itself reports handling 108,000 takeoffs and landings in the past year, up 11.2 percent year-on-year, with a total of 14.05 million passengers, up 14.8 percent, and 116,000 tons of cargo up 9 percent.