Aviation company: Eager to increase capacity at Pudong Airport
As one of the three most important airports in China, Pudong Airport is located in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta. It has adequate business and travel passenger flow, and plays an increasingly important role as an aviation hub in Asia. During the summer, passenger throughput in Pudong reached a new high, peaking at 1,120 flights per day. The rapidly growing demands of the passenger market and the increasingly tight flight timetables have encouraged more and more airlines to use larger planes to increase capacity. Emirates Airline is the first to use the A380 in Pudong Airport. After that, Air France began operating an A380 between Pudong and Paris on September 3. Deutsche Lufthansa introduced an A380 for its Pudong-Frankfurt route on September 26. Singapore Airlines will introduce an A380 into Pudong Airport for flights in winter and spring. Pudong is expected to be the busiest airport for A380s in China.
Pudong Airport: Fully prepared for several simultaneous A380 take-offs and landings
A380s require the highest hardware standards in the world due to their seven-story height, 73-meter length, and nearly 80-meter wingspan. Besides a high-standard runway and taxi track, they also need dedicated boarding facilities, meals, oil plants and rescue equipment, as well as dedicated de-icers in winter.
Pudong Airport has two 4F-level runways, three qualified gate positions for A380s, and 17 spare aprons. Since 2008, Terminal 2 has put two dedicated double-store air bridges into use. In 2011, Air Bridge 24 of Terminal 1 was upgraded. This year, the air bridge also re-demarcated the flight line and operating line according to A380 standards. The above resources can ensure multiple A380 take-offs and landings at Pudong Airport.
Ground services must also meet the standards of the A380s. In terms of one A380 plane, more than 500 passengers will board and exit at a time. The requirements for ground services will increase. The whole team, including cleaners, baggage handlers, check-in counter staff and boarding servers need to be specially trained to increase their work efficiency, preventing bottlenecks at check-in, security check channels and boarding gates.
The successful experience of the A380 from Emirates Airline proves that Pudong Airport is fully prepared for the A380s.
A380: Take off with Pudong Airport as a core hub
The arrival of several A380 airplanes will surely drive the development of Pudong Airport as a core hub. Of course, the number of big planes is not the only measurement of a core Asia-Pacific hub. The quality of air routes and the convergence time of connecting flights are more important. Targeted as a core hub in the Asia-Pacific region, Pudong Airport has been trying to improve its route network by increasing transit rates, shortening convergence time, and providing more convenient and efficient flight services for global passengers.
Terminal 1 is now under renovation. More than 1 billion yuan ($163.4 million) has been invested to build a more convenient transit process, providing hardware support for the core hub. Terminal 1 has already been upgraded into a transit terminal for several airlines.
In recent years, the number of air routes at Pudong Airport have increased significantly. Many projects carried out in Pudong Airport have led to an increase in the number of transit passengers, including the "free stamps within 24 hours" policy, "72-hour transit visas" and the "All-Through Transportation" project of China Eastern Airlines. The number of transfer passengers is now 1.04 million , a year-on-year growth of 11.31 percent. The ratio of transfer passengers has hit a record high of 9 percent. The Shanghai free-trade policy was also officially introduced recently. With the Shanghai tourist zone and Disneyland Shanghai as the core, Pudong Airport will try to make full use of these opportunities to become a true "Asia-Pacific Core Aviation Hub".
