Beijing's new airport will greatly ease the burden on the current airport, but civilian and military use must be coordinated to ensure smooth operations, experts have said.
Approval of the airport, to be located in the south of the capital, was announced on Sunday.
"The rapidly increasing number of passengers has forced the airport in Beijing to run at near-full capacity," said Liu Weimin, a professor of Civilian Aviation Management Institute of China. "A second airport is needed to divert passenger flow."
Beijing Capital International Airport has been ranked as the world's second-busiest airport for three consecutive years.
It handled 81.8 million passenger trips last year, a 4.2 percent increase from the previous year, second only to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in the United States.
Shanghai's two airports handled more than 78 million passenger trips in 2012.