The Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) has granted Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport permission to increase the number of aircraft movements it can handle every hour, significantly boosting the constrained airport’s capacity.

From the beginning of this month, the city’s primary international gateway has been able to increase the average 65 flights an hour to 74 but in the interests of safety, due to thunderous weather conditions experienced during the summer months, peak slot hours will be controlled at 70 flights.

The new allowance has been based on CAAC’s evaluation of the airport’s capacity upgrade and support system, and is expected to change Pudong International’s long since saturated schedules and contribute to its traffic growth.

Construction of a fifth 3,400m runway is currently underway, as well as a new satellite terminal, with both developments due to be completed by early-2015. Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines is expected to see the biggest benefit from the expansion, as its set to become the largest occupant of the new terminal. The airport is aiming to handle 100 million passengers and 5.5 million tonnes of cargo a year by 2015.

Like most airports in China, Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport has seen rapid growth over the past two decades with capacity doubling from around 15 million annual departure seats in 2004 to over 30 million in 2013. Current schedules suggest seat capacity will grow a further 6.5 per cent in 2014 to over 33 million departure seats.

In our analysis, below, we look in greater detail at 2014 seat capacity from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and highlight the largest users of the facility, the third largest airport in China, based on this year’s flight schedules.

Data provided by