Shanghai Pudong Now Has the World’s Largest Satellite Terminal

Opening this September, the world’s largest satellite terminal building will now be located at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport (PVG).

Although construction on the H-shaped satellite terminal – named for its concourses S1 and S2 – had only begun in December 2015, finishing touches are already being placed on both the new terminal and its people movers, which will connect it to Terminals 1 and 2. Check-in formalities will still be completed at Terminal 1 or 2, though the people movers will only take three minutes to make it to the new satellite, with expected an headway of only two minutes between trains.

The structure has a gross floor area of roughly 622, 000 square meters (nearly 6.7 million square feet), wide, sweeping windows, and halls free of support beams, as if to give a spacious and open feeling to passengers. No less than 20, 000 beams were used in the construction of the satellite terminals’ triangular roof; interestingly, QR codes were placed into each beam in order to keep workers conveniently informed of the day’s goals. Furthermore, there will be 83 jet bridges and 125 aprons, aspects currently lacking due to massive growth at PVG.

Along with Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (SHA), which mostly handles domestic and regional operations, the Shanghai metropolitan area is the fifth busiest in the world by passenger volume, trailing only London, New York, Tokyo, and Atlanta. In 2018, the two airports served close to 117 million travelers; come next month, PVG will be able to handle approximately 80 million annual passengers.

Coincidentally, another superlative in the aviation industry will also be debuting in China next month. Beijing Daxing Airport (PKX) – the world’s largest single terminal building – is on track to help alleviate the tremendous crowding at PEK, which is already the second-busiest airport on the planet. Sadly, China’s oldest and less well-known airport, Beijing Nanyuan (NAY), will be closing commercial services once PKX opens.

[Image Source: Flickr/Yuya Sekiguchi]