Shanghai Pudong's new satellite terminal
 

The other day I had the dubious pleasure of transiting through this newly-opened facility, which bills itself as the largest satellite terminal in the world. During checkin for my flight to PVG from Singapore (operated by China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines) I was told the good news - I would be among the first to experience the new space.

The experience was underwhelming at best: the building looks clean, spacious and modern, much like the arrival hall of any airport built in the last couple of decades. But since I was connecting to a Chinese domestic flight, I needed to go through immigration formalities, Which this new facility doesn't have! So I needed to go by people mover to the main terminal building.

The problem with people movers is that they create bottlenecks: as a plane unloads, passengers don't move towards the immigration windows at a steady stream, but rather gather on the station platform waiting for the next train. Even thogh they arrive every 5 minutes or so, that makes for a couple hundred people, who cram into the train, and then on arrival at the main terminal, all scramble for the one escalator up.

This is going to be an extra nuisance to business class travelers, who normally get off the plane first, and expect to also be first in line at the border check.

I'd say that this satellite situation could add as much as 30 minutes to international-to-domestic transfers for people in Shanghai.

Thanks for your report. I'm flying in there for the first time next month, and was mildly curious about border control formalities. I'm more curious about the departure facilities on offer. While I don't want to get my hopes up, I'd like to think that a decent restaurant or two has set up shop (Hongqiao moved up from a 1 to a 2.5 on my 5 point scale when T2 opened there).

The shear thought of connecting at PVG has always sent shivers up my spine, and based on your account, I suppose this will continue to be the case.

The Chinese Airports see no problem in cramming as many people into a space as possible be it on people movers, buses or trains like at PEK. Their airports all suck because of this, new or old. My girlfriend also arrived into this new terminal 2 days ago and she said it was poorly organized with locked doors that needed to be opened, long walks to the people mover and no reduction of the general madness that goes on in Chinese airports. In short it sounds like it will suck even more to use PVG now. SHA is definitely my preferred airport for both domestic and international (whenever possible).

My arrival experience on MU to the new satellite terminal last evening was ok. There was a problem with the jetbridge so we stayed on the plane about an extra 5-10 minutes while they corrected the issue. The walk to the people mover wasn’t too far, there were plenty of those fingerprint machines, and then you walk through a health screening that slowed us for about a minute. Then down the escalator to the people mover, which was very full but not overcrowded, about a 5 minute ride, and then up an escalator that exits into the T1 immigration hall. It felt like arriving into the satellite terminal versus T1 directly added about 10 minutes. Tonight I’ll be departing on MU, I assume from satellite 2, and will report my experience. Agree with the previous poster about the facility looking very clean, bright, very high ceilings, wide walkways, and the directions were very clear

^ That's impressive!https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...157e719115.jpg

Departed on MU last evening from the new satellite terminal pvg-del. After going through checkin, passport control, and security in T1, you turn immediately right and head down the escalator to the people mover that takes you to the satellite terminal. There is an elevator as you get out of the train that takes you to level 5 where the MU lounge is located. We took the escalator up so we could see what the terminal had to offer before heading up to the lounge. There were plenty of the usual stores you find at airports, and several restaurants on both the main departure level 3, and on level 4. The terminal seemed huge, and had an empty look and feel to it. We went into the MU lounge on level 5, and it seemed similar to the one in T1 except its all on one level. So one end is very similar to the downstairs of the T1 lounge, and the other end is similar to the upstairs. There are signs to a quiet area, but it was roped off presumably its not ready yet. There are some showers there than appeared to be open. The food area is much better laid out, with one end very much like a noisy cafeteria. The other end has the more comfortable seating but you can hear all the noise and comotion from the cafeteria end. It was evening time and heavy curtains were drawn, but it did not look like there is a view of the airfield or planes.

Do you happen to recall specifics about the restaurants, especially Western options?

The names were not familiar to me, and the ones I saw did not look western.

My first time in the new terminal today. Restaurants suck as expected with western options only DQ, Starbucks, Papa Johns and BK. Chinese options revolve around noodles and dumplings. Predictably what they lack in restaurants they make up for in the duty free department, lots of that to go around.

MU lounge is same as the old one basically.

No reason to arrive any sooner than absolutely necessary to catch a flight from PVG or any other mainland airport. The new terminal also requires an additional 10 minutes of lead time to get the train over and walk through the terminal to your gate. Departure time -70 minutes should still be enough.

My flight today gave me a second data point on the satellite terminal, both of which were arrivals, so I can't comment on the restaurants.

The short of it is that it took close to an hour between touchdown time and me getting to the curb:
-walk to train
-wait for train (I think it's 5 minute intervals)
-take train
-snake your through a bit of a maze to get to border control (immigration)
-border control itself is always fast for me because of echannel, but I glanced at the other lines, including TWOV, and all looked reasonable
-I was one of the first people from my flight to make it to baggage claim, and it appeared that all bags were already waiting (i.e. something to consider for the HBO crowd)
-customs was a serious bottleneck because everybody had to put bags in the scanner, and one of the two was out of order
*we have a thread on this topic; I was annoyed today because it seemed to serve no purpose at all, and the 4 customs guys (who were busy chatting with each other instead of attending to the scanner) surely noticed the extremely long and slow moving line

I feel that PVG has successfully leapfrogged both PEK (T3) and SZX in order to win the "least convenient airport in China" prize. On the flip side, the Shanghai Airport Authority also gave us SHA T1, which is blissfully convenient.

Do not under any circumstances travel through this airport. Make sure the travel agency does not send route you through this airport. This is based on my experience several weeks ago.

If you want to fly nonstop to other continents, PVG is the only option.

Dallas to Hong Kong

Lax to Manila

Atlanta to Seoul

Im sure there’s more options.

I was fingerprinted, both hands...just to make a connecting flight, customs twice, security twice, immigration twice , passport stamped twice, boarding passes issued in Manila were not accepted at this airport. No baggage transfers. Airports in Africa are superior...China is still a 3rd world country.

As much as I dislike PVG, there is nonstop service from PVG to all of these places, and this matters to those of us that live in Shanghai. If I want to go to Dallas, dealing with PVG is preferable to connecting in HKG.

That having been said, if you're just talking about airports to connect through, MNL is the only worse option I can think of than PVG.

Terminal #1 #2 and #3 personnel speak fluent English in Manila. There were no PVG personnel speaking basic English. Other foreign passengers assisted me...at PVG. If I had checked baggage in Manila...I would have missed my flight at PVG. Manila is superior to PVG. Heck...Djibouti, East Africa is superior to PVG.

I stand by my comments. Stay away from PVG.