Shanghai Pudong Intl Airport: Fastest growing hub for passenger and cargo traffic

Serving as the primary international airport serving Shanghai, and a major aviation hub for Asia, Shanghai Pudong International Airport is the main hub for China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, and a major international hub for Air China. It is also an Asian-Pacific cargo hub for UPS and DHL. The DHL hub, opened in July 2012, is said to be the biggest express hub in Asia.
Pudong Airport has two main passenger terminals, flanked on both sides by three parallel runways. A third passenger terminal is planned for 2015, in addition to a satellite terminal and two additional runways, raising its annual capacity from 60 million passengers to 80 million, along with the ability to handle six million tonnes of freight.
Pudong Airport is a fast-growing hub for both passenger and cargo traffic. The airport’s cargo terminal Shanghai Pudong Air Cargo Terminal’s (PACTL) recently achieved the best monthly result ever, reaching a total of 139,103 tonnes of air freight handled in the month of October (+17.1 percent year-on-year). Overall, the terminal saw tonnage rise by 16.61 percent to 1,217,914 tonnes in the first ten months of this year. “I therefore expect a new annual record at the end of this year by reaching a figure of 1.45 million tonnes of air cargo for the very first time,” said a confident Lutz Grzegorz, vice president of PACTL.
“First of all, we saw an ongoing positive development in our domestic business. It is not increasing as strongly anymore. However, I still see a positive trend for the next months. Secondly, international imports increased considerably during the last months. This is mainly due to a growth in cargo volumes of several American airlines on the one hand and the expansion of Air China Cargo at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on the other hand. Last but not least, we also continued increasing our customer base. PACTL now serves 52 permanent and several charter customers,” said Lutz.
Talking about the scale of investments planned, Lutz said “In the near future, we plan on enlarging our cooling facilities in order to further develop our perishable business in general and, above all, to meet the increasing demand for the transport of special cargo like pharmaceuticals.”
Earlier this year, PACTL implemented an upgrade of its warehouse cargo handling system which provides new opportunities for future technologies and therefore helps strengthening our handling processes. Benefits include new features like more sophisticated DGR and ULD stock functions and the facility to produce integrated cargo damage reports.
Shanghai Pudong International Airport features a proven and mature air cargo market which will further grow in the transfer/transit sector. “I think that the continued positive development of the domestic market will result in a more distinct hub functionality,” Lutz said. According to Lutz, the Free Trade Zone will further strengthen the position of Shanghai Pudong International Airport as a major air cargo hub. 