The new terminal set to open today will more than double the number of passengers the airport is equipped to handle to 60 million a year, from the current 28 million, the airport authorities say.

And the cargo handling capacity at Pudong, located near the seaside in Shanghai's new financial district, will rise by 1.2 million tonnes per year to 3.7 million tonnes.

The terminal is part of a 20 billion yuan (S$3.9 billion) expansion plan that also features two recently completed projects: a third runway and a new freight handling area.

'As the passenger numbers and cargo flow have kept up double-digit growth for years, the old infrastructure can no longer satisfy the soaring demand,' said Mr Wu Nianzu, chairman of the board of the Shanghai Airport Authority (SAA).

The SAA runs both Pudong airport and the smaller Hongqiao airport across town.

Shanghai will play host in 2010 to the World Expo, an event expected to bring 15 million passengers to the financial centre, putting even more pressure on the airport's handling capacity.

The new 480,000 sq m terminal, about the size of 96 football fields and said to be modelled on a seagull design, features wireless Internet access, special baby-care rooms and carpeted waiting areas.

Pudong's more modest first phase, which opened in 1999 amid the Asian financial crisis, is considered to be ill-suited for the city's ambitions to become a world financial centre.

By 2015, Pudong plans to complete a third passenger terminal, raising its capacity to 80 million passengers and 6.5 million tonnes of cargo a year, according to a recent report by the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation.

The second terminal's completion comes amid an airport construction boom in China.

Nearly 100 new airports are due to be built by 2020 at a cost of more than US$60 billion (S$83 billion), according to a plan by the General Administration of Civil Aviation.

China had 147 airports in 2006, the China Daily newspaper reported yesterday.

Civil aviation traffic across the country grew by 16 per cent last year to 185 million passenger trips and is expected to increase to 210 million this year.

Beijing airport handled 48 million passengers last year, way above its capacity of 35 million, according to official statistics.

It recently opened a grandiose new terminal in preparation for the Olympic Games in August.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS