The city's only international airport will start an expansion project later this month, with the aim of tripling annual passenger capacity.

The Shanghai Airport Authority announced on Friday the scheme will add another terminal to the east of the current one, plus two more runways and another cargo transportation centre.

The total cost of the construction work at Pudong International Airport, which opened in 1999, will be nearly 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion).

Work is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2007. The new buildings should be in use before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Upon completion, the expansion project will increase the airport's annual passenger capacity from the current 20 million to 60 million, making Shanghai one of the most important airports in the world.

The airport plans to handle around 100 million passengers a year and 5.7 million tons of cargo by 2020. It will become the biggest international airport in China.

By then, it should have three terminals, two satellite buildings and five runways, and will handle most of the air passengers in and out of the city.

According to plans, all domestic flights will also be moved to Pudong Airport. The whole plan is scheduled to be finished by 2020.

A 16.8-square-kilometre logistics park will be built near the 240,000 square metre new cargo transportation centre.

Also, the percentage of transfer passengers in Pudong Airport is only 5 per cent of the total number of passengers but that figure is expected to grow to 30 to 40 percent by 2020.

(China Daily December 19, 2005)