The second runway for Pudong Airport has been put into usage recently, and the second terminal building is under construction. It means, very soon, the Pudong Airport will be twice as big as its current size.
I went to the Pudong Airport twice in the last weekend, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Every time, the airport is crowded and full of people. I remember when I visited the airport about four years ago, I didn’t see many people and I wonder – will it be a project that aims to be big, huge, beautiful, but wasted too much money? It turned out my worry was not necessary. Now, the capacity of the first terminal building is not enough for sufficient transportation, especially the UA and CA flights in the afternoon – it is almost as crowded as a train station – the long line goes in Z-shape till to the entrance of the terminal, blocking other passengers’ way. According the plan, when the second terminal is completed, the third and forth will be constructed so the Pudong Airport will be four times as big as the current one.
Acturally the airport capacity is not directly proportional to the number of runways. There will be a very complex relation between them. For example, the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has 5 runways, its capacity is not the 5 times of the one runway.
Nice blog you have here. A bit confusing, but nice. I came across your blog when reading your comment on tagging at hyperorg. Welcome on my blogroll, though.
Thanks gor the information. I shall be visiting Shanghai shortly. I shall be reaching Pudong Airport late in the evening. I know the maglev service ceases at 5:30 PM. But is there a subway from Pudong Airport to downtown now. I understand it was due to start in 2005.
There isn’t a subway that I know of. We’ve always arrived at night and had to take a taxi. Shouldn’t cost more than $20 US or so into the center of town.
I had the “pleasure” of using this runway last friday combing back from Europe. It takes between 10 and 15 minutes to get to the terminal taxying in the plane (which is even worse then the new runway the opened in Amsterdam airport last year). I wish they would finally do something to solve the disasterous logistics in Pudong. Talking about hugh cues at Immigration, endless delays (both on domestic and international flights) instead of continuous expansion (and using excuses like air traffic congestion at 10PM!). I really wish we were back to the “old” days of Hong Qiao airport, which was and still is much better in operations.
When a airport has two or more runways.it could be considered as a nexus airport.
Hi, Jianshuo
I appriciate the information given in this site and would like to check whether the bus form Pudong Airport to Nanjing scheduled at 18:00 is still in operation.
Thank you.
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