The current runway will complete its service life next year, which means the airport will find it hard to deal with increasing numbers of passengers, said Jing Yiming, general manager of Construction Development Company of Shanghai Airport Group Co Ltd.

"The city should consider the future development of Hongqiao Airport when expanding Pudong airport," Jing said.

By 2010, Hongqiao is expected to have 31 million domestic passengers, far exceeding the designing capacity of 9.6 million passengers a year for the current runway.

The central government has required Shanghai to become an aviation hub in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010.

According to the local airport authority, Pudong International Airport is building the second runway which will be followed by the third and fourth ones.

Insiders predict the city is expected to have about 70 million visitors when it opens the World Expo in 2010. Of them, over 30 million will arrive at the city by air.

Li Guoqiang, chief of planning division in the East China Bureau of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, believes, the second runway of Pudong airport is "crucial for the World Expo 2010."

After the first phase project was completed in 1999, Pudong is able to handle 20 million passengers a year, but that is not enough for the huge number of visitors to come to the Expo.

Under the planning, Pudong airport will have two terminal buildings that can handle 60 million passengers a year when the second phase is completed.

Wang Guangdi, general manager of the Operations and Command Centre at Shanghai Airport Authority, said: "The authority has ability to raise funds for it."

The second phase is expected to cost some 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in investment, less than 13 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) for the first phase which includes a terminal building and a runway.

(China Daily April 22, 2003)