Shanghai Pudong International Airport will build a third passenger terminal and two more runways by 2015 to meet rising air travel demand, Wu Nianzu, chairman of Shanghai Airport Authority, said yesterday.

The expansion will further boost the capacity of the city's bigger airport to 80 million passengers a year and six million tons of freight in 2015.

"Pudong Airport became the world's sixth busiest airport in terms of capacity last year. With the forthcoming Olympics and the World Expo, the airport will play a more important role," said Wu. "To expand the airport is not a local strategy, but a strategy to serve the development of the Yangtze River Delta region and the whole nation."

Last year, Pudong International Airport posted a double-digit growth in traffic handled, with more than 46 million passengers and 2.5 million tons of freight.

A second terminal and a third runway are due to open at Pudong Airport next year to boost its annual capacity to 60 million passengers and 4.2 million tons of freight.

Meanwhile, DHL International GmbH, a global express and logistics giant, announced yesterday it would invest US$175 million to set up DHL Express North Asia Hub at the airport.

Its move followed that of United States-based United Parcel Service which signed a deal with the Shanghai airport authority in April to build the UPS International Air Hub at the airport. UPS's hub is set to open in 2008.

DHL's hub will enable the airport to become the world's only airfield to boast two global hubs and sharply raise its freight traffic capability.

Daniel McHugh, chief executive officer of DHL Express Asia Pacific, said the firm's announcement "underlines DHL's strong commitment and confidence" in Shanghai's vision of building itself as a world economic hub.

"Our task as a global logistics provider is to network the world. We are confident that the new hub will give us an even greater competitive edge in managing the huge and complex global trade that is being routed to this region," McHugh said.

Set to be completed in the second half of 2010, the 55,000-square-meter DHL hub will complement the firm's hubs in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Incheon in Seoul, Singapore and Sydney.

(Shanghai Daily November 27, 2007)