Firms are among those bidding to design a third facility for Beijing

Architects HOK and Foster + Partners have confirmed they are among the firms bidding to deliver a huge third airport for Beijing.

The project will see the Chinese capital overtake London as the world’s busiest transport hub, and could bring the number of passengers travelling through the city to 200 million a year.

Rival bidders are said to include Zaha Hadid and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, working with Arup.

HOK, which recently redeveloped Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, has teamed up with Dutch airport consultant NACO to strengthen its bid. The firm is said to have appointed specialists in its London, Hong Kong and San Francisco offices to work on the project.

Other teams believed to be in the running include the state-owned Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, the East China Architecture Design & Research Institute, and French airport specialists ADPI.

The airport could have as many as nine runways and is expected to be situated in the rural district of Daxing, about 31 miles south-west of the city centre.

Phase one of the project is due for completion in 2015, and Beijing officials have said they will start work on land acquisition and demolition this year.  

The city’s existing airport, in the north of Beijing, became the second busiest in the world after a third terminal was opened ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

It was designed by Foster + Partners, and boasts more floor space than Heathrow’s five terminals combined.

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