The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about to get some serious competition. It's held the title of the world's busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic since 1998 — but China's newest airport is trying to challenge that.

China opened Beijing Daxing Airport on Wednesday, the second international airport in the capital city. When it reaches full operational capacity, expected in the next several years, 100 million passengers are forecast to go through the airport annually.

The International Air Transport Association expects Asia Pacific to be the biggest driver of air passenger demand in the 20 years through 2035.

Specifically, China will replace the U.S. as the world's largest aviation market in about five years, the association predicts. The market is defined by traffic to and from the country, as well as domestic flights within its borders.

The bulk of the growth in Chinese air travel came in the three decades since the government began earnest efforts to reduce state control of the economy and open up its market to foreign access.

In 1974, the earliest data available from The World Bank, just 710,000 passengers were carried in China. That climbed to 11.1 million in 1989, and multiplied manifold to 611.4 million in 2018, the bank's data showed.

The existing Beijing Capital International Airport opened in 1958. It already holds the title of second-largest airport by number of passengers, according to Airports Council International.