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Pudong readies new terminal to be regional cargo hub

Shanghai's Pudong International Airport is opening a new terminal and cargo facility aimed at making China's commercial center and biggest city the cargo hub of Asia by 2010.

The terminal, to be inaugurated today, will more than double the number of passengers the airport is equipped to handle to 60 million a year from the current 28 million, airport authorities say. The cargo handling capacity at Pudong will rise by 1.2 million tonnes per year to 3.7 million tonnes per year.

The new 480,000m2 terminal comes amid a boom in airport construction in China. Nearly 100 new airports are due to be built by 2020, according to a plan by the General Administration of Civil Aviation. China had 147 airports as of 2006, the China Daily reported yesterday.

Beijing recently opened a grandiose new terminal in preparation for the Olympic Games in August. The new Pudong terminal is meant to help handle increased traffic brought by the Beijing Games as well as by the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

By 2015, Pudong plans to have a third passenger terminal, raising its capacity to 80 million passengers and 6.5 million tonnes of cargo a year, a recent report by the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation said.

Meanwhile, Shanghai's Hongqiao International Airport, in the western suburbs, is due to boost its annual capacity to 30 million passengers with the completion by 2010 of a new terminal and runway, the China Daily quoted Jia Ruijun, general manager of Shanghai International Airport Co, as saying.

In other news, shares in Shanghai International Airport Co, operator of the Pudong airport, fell yesterday after saying new pricing rules will cause a 10 percent decline in revenue.

The company dropped by the 10 percent daily limit to 26.79 yuan (US$3.80) in Shanghai trading.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation began a new fee structure for Chinese airports on March 1 that will reduce revenue, Shanghai International said yesterday in a statement. The regulator changed the fees to make them in line with global practices, it said.

Lower landing and take-off charges for overseas carriers are the main reasons revenue will drop, said Yu Jianjun (餘建軍), an analyst at Huatai Securities Co.

Net income at Shanghai International has more than doubled in the past five years to 1.69 billion yuan (US$238 million) last year, according to the company's preliminary report.
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