Shanghai's two airports will specialize in separate roles while serving airlines and travelers, said industry officials at a three-day forum held in Shanghai yesterday.

Pudong International Airport will be a hub for major air carrier services while Hongqiao will focus on regional and freight services. Officials also said the city's airports will be prepared to serve the 2008 Olympic Games. The second Pudong terminal building will be completed and the smaller Hongqiao facility will finish its renovation by 2008.

"The separation of the two airports' position will help Shanghai meet increasing demand of air transport and make the city more competitive in both domestic and world aviation markets," said Wu Nianzu, board chairman and president of Shanghai Airport Authority at the Shanghai International Aviation Symposium which ends today.

The authority plans to carry out a large-scale face-lift on Hongqiao, which started operation in early 1960s and needs to be renovated to match Shanghai's fast-growing air traffic.

It will fix the runway, renovate the terminal and redesign and improve the boarding procedure.

Pudong International Airport is building a second runway, which is supposed to be put into use next year, and it's also going to build a second terminal to be finished by 2007.

The preparation work for the third runway is already underway and, after its completion in 2007, the airport will be able to serve 60 million passengers and transport 4.2 million tons of cargo annually, with about 490,000 times of taking-offs and landings.

Shanghai's two airports are expected to carry 80 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight a year by 2020, according to Xia Xinghua, director of the east China branch of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The RT No. 2, a subway running across the Huangpu River in the east-west direction, will be extended both eastwards and westwards to link the two airports.

"Then the problem of traffic jams between the two airports won't exist for passengers," said Wu.

Gu Jiadan, a senior official with Shanghai Airlines Co Ltd, even suggested the city to move all domestic flights to Pudong by 2008, leaving Hongqiao for freight service and charter flights.

The Pudong facility now handles all the international flights and part of the domestic services after a flight shift in late 2002.

Airline executives also proposed that the government should offer more favorable visa policies for transit passengers and said transit procedures are also need to be simplified.

"Passengers transferring between international and domestic flights should be handled with one-stop service," said Shanghai Airlines' Gu. "Luggage should be transferred directly between planes."

Currently, passengers have to go to various counters and through a complicated process to complete their transit and that of their luggage.

(Shanghai Daily April 30, 2004)