Bids open for 2nd airport terminal
( 2003-09-30 11:02) (China Daily)
China's busiest aviation hub, Shanghai, Tuesday
starts accepting bids to design a second international air terminal as the city
races to ramp up capacity to cope with booming air travel, officials said
Monday.
The new terminal, to be finished in 2007, would be built to handle 40 million
passengers a year - 17 per cent more than Hong Kong did in 2002 - and help hike
the city's overall capacity to 70 million passengers annually by 2010.
Air passengers through China's financial hub should jump 15-20 per cent
annually to 50 million a year by 2010, after a brief hiccup this year amid the
SARS outbreak, reaching 75-80 million in 2015, an airport official told
reporters.
"Even if we weren't hosting the World Expo in 2010, that kind of growth is
assured," Shanghai Airport Authority executive Yi Jiwu said.
The Shanghai Airport Authority was set up in 1998 to manage both Pudong
airport, a glittering modern structure on the fringe of the eastern financial
district, and the older Hongqiao airport now used only for domestic
flights.
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