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Shanghai is making plans to develop its Pudong Airport in anticipation of increased traffic arising from the World Expo to be held in 2010.

According to the top leaders of the Shanghai airport group, experts will be commissioned to update the general plan of the Pudong Airport building.

Pudong is Shanghai's newest international airport built in 1999 to take the burden off the existing Hongqiao Airport, and will shoulder the majority of air transport by 2010.

The building project, made up of four phases to be completed in 2010, will make Pudong Airport a transport hub of Asia meeting international standards, said Du Chuncai, president of the Shanghai airport group.

The airport will be able to handle about 80 million passengers every year, 60 million more than the present capacity, and the two airports together will be able to handle about 90 million passengers by 2010.

The first phase of the project was the building of the Pudong Airport, and the second phase will begin in 2003 with an investment of 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars).

In 2002, the passenger flow in Shanghai's airport was 24.68 million. As 70 million tourists are expected to travel to Shanghai during the 2010 World Expo, the city will see an increase of 15-20 million airline passengers, said Du.

Air freight transport is also growing rapidly in Shanghai. The volume of freight through the city's two airports reached 1.31 million tons in 2002, exceeding the planned volume of the first phase of the project. Shanghai will also build a freight handling area in Pudong Airport to enhance its ability to transport and manage air freight.