SHANGHAI Pudong International Airport climbed the ranks as the world's sixth largest airport in terms of cargo traffic last year.

Pudong Airport moved up two notches to the sixth spot from a year before on the list issued by the Airports Council International in early March. The airport loaded 2,159,321 tons of freight and mail in 2006, a jump of 16.3 percent from a year before.

Almost 90 percent of the total cargo was flying to or from a foreign country or region, growing by 31.7 percent from 2005. Express delivery giants United Parcel Service Inc and DHL have signed agreements with Shanghai airport to build global and north Asia hubs at the Pudong airfield to further boost the freight volume.

A 19.7-billion-yuan (US$2.5 billion) second phase project at Pudong airport, which includes a second terminal and a third runway, is expected to be completed in 2007 and put into use before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The expansion will give the airport the capacity to handle 60 million passengers and 4.2 million tons of cargo in 2008.

Source:佚名