Pudong airport unveils plans to build T3 terminal
The satellite terminal of the Pudong airport.
The Shanghai Pudong International Airport will build an additional terminal building to meet both the rising demands of air traveling and the city's ambition of becoming the world's top shipping and air transport center.
As the Phase 4 expansion project of the Pudong airport, the T3 terminal is expected to serve 50 million passengers annually.
It will cover 1.19 million square meters in the south of the S1 and S2 satellite terminal, according to Zhou Junlong, vice president of the Shanghai Airport Authority.
"The T3 terminal will set a standard for large domestic airports on the capacity for international travelers as well as the number of aircraft stands for direct boarding and transferring," Zhou told a press conference on Thursday.
The new terminal will further improve the services at the airport and make Shanghai's airports the world's top-class air hub, Zhou said.
A new transport center, stretching 1.03 million square meters, will be built and attached to the T3 terminal. It will be more convenient for air travelers to transfer to public transports and to catch flights, Zhou said.
Shanghai aims to become the world's top shipping and air transport center by 2025.
The first-class international hub will feature convenient and efficient transport, an integrated network, and green and intelligent operation, said Yu Fulin, director of the Shanghai Transport Commission.
To achieve the goal, Shanghai will build a leading international container terminal and a world-class air hub as well as the core of the harbor and airport clusters of the Yangtze River Delta region, Yu said.
Aircraft berth at the satellite terminal of the Pudong airport.
With the new terminal building, the Pudong and Hongqiao airports will handle over 130 million travelers annually along with 4.1 million tons of air cargo by 2025.
Zhou said the airports will further enhance the digital transformation by building a smart cargo terminal to tap the rising demands for cold air logistics and cross-border businesses.
The taxiways and maintenance sections of both airports will also be enhanced.
Shanghai has developed into an international air hub for the Asia Pacific, said Yu.
Over 100 airlines had been operating at the Pudong and Hongqiao airports by 2019 with flights to 314 destinations in 50 countries. The airports handled 120 million passengers annually along with some 4 million tons of cargo, ranking fourth and third among global cities, respectively.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the two airports took over about a third of China's inbound and outbound overseas flights as well as half of the import and export coronavirus prevention supplies.
The punctuality rate at both airports has been above 80 percent on average. The airports have also been certified as the "Platinum Airports" by the International Air Transport Association.
The airport authority finished the Phase 3 project, which included a satellite terminal covering 620,000 square meters, in 2019. The H-shaped terminal building, the world's largest, is about 700 meters from existing terminals 1 and 2.
When the satellite terminal opens, Pudong will be able to handle 80 million passengers a year, 6 million more than before.
