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)