(Yicai) Oct. 21 -- Passenger, transit, and cargo numbers at Shanghai’s two airports climbed to new heights last year, it was revealed at the North Bund Forum, a global shipping and aviation industry gathering held annually in the city.

Some 125 million passengers used Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in 2024, ranking the two hubs third globally, while their cargo throughput exceeded 4.2 million tons, placing them second in the world, Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhang Xiaohong said at the three-day conference that ends today.

They are the busiest passenger airports in China and Pudong Airport is the world’s sole aviation hub in the top 10 for both passenger and cargo traffic, Zhou Hao, president of Shanghai Airport Authority, which runs the two airports, said at the forum.

Pudong Airport’s passenger capacity will increase further after its fourth construction phase is completed. It will then have three terminals and four runways, with annual passenger and cargo handling capacities increasing to 130 million people and 5.9 million tons, respectively.

The passenger transfer rate at Pudong and Hongqiao airports reached 15.7 percent last year, also a new record, Zhang noted.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines teamed up with SAA to make the city China’s largest aviation center, and it has become the Chinese carrier with the most international and regional destinations, according to Chairman Wang Zhiqing.

China Eastern’s route strategy focuses on “flying far, flying internationally, and flying to emerging markets” to build a network of global connectivity corridors, Wang said.

The airline serves more international destinations than any other Chinese carrier, with the number of its international and domestic flights operated out of Shanghai as of June 30 exceeding that in 2019, according to the company’s half-year financial report.

Moreover, China Eastern is the largest Chinese carrier to Australia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand, as well as the one with the most destinations in Japan and South Korea, the report also showed.

The ratio of Japanese and South Korean passengers transiting through China to third countries versus Chinese passenger changeovers through Japan and Korea shifted markedly to 1:0.4 in the first half of this year from 1:9 in April 2023, during the early stage of international flight recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, China Eastern Vice President Wan Qingchao pointed out.

Nearly half of Japanese and Korean travelers transiting through Chinese airports chose Shanghai as the switching hub, up from 35 percent, Wan noted.

China Eastern handled 8.36 million international transfer passengers at Pudong Airport last year, accounting for 81 percent of the airport’s total, according to Wan. That jumped 27 percent to almost 4.8 million in the first half of this year from a year earlier, making China Eastern a key driver for Pudong Airport’s international transfer volume growth, Wan added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione