A second terminal opens at Shanghai's international airport today, as part of a 20 billion yuan (HK$22.09 billion) expansion that aims to make the city a leading global aviation hub by 2010.
Terminal Two is the final part of a project that includes a third runway and a new cargo-handling centre. The expansion will allow Pudong International Airport to handle 60 million passengers annually, double its existing capacity.
Shanghai Airport Authority chairman Wu Nianzu said the expansion was planned to ease pressure at the airport and handle a surge of visitors for the Olympics this year and the World Expo in 2010.
'The target is to make the airport the key hub of Asia's air traffic,' he said on Monday.
Along with Beijing's Capital International Airport and Guangzhou's new Baiyun International Airport, Pudong is one of the country's three airports destined to become major air traffic hubs, a national blueprint issued by the government in 2002 said.
It has experienced rapid passenger growth since it opened more than a decade ago, reaching nearly 29 million passengers last year. By 2015 it will be able to handle 80 million passengers a year with the possibility of a third terminal, Mr Wu said.