SHANGHAI - Shanghai inaugurated a massive new airport terminal and transport hub Tuesday meant to help the city handle the 70 million or more visitors it expects to attend the upcoming World Expo.
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The new Hongqiao terminal is part of a sweeping upgrading of the transport system for Shanghai, a city of about 20 million people.
Hongqiao Airport's new second terminal, located west of the current terminal building, will handle almost all domestic flights from the airport, though some charter and international flights will still use the older facility.
Shanghai's larger, newer international airport in Pudong, on the opposite side of the city, handles most of the city's international flights as well as many domestic routes.
The Expo, which begins May 1 and will run for six months, may attract as many as 800,000 visitors a day at peak times, stretching even the new transport systems to their limits. Almost all are expected to be Chinese, many of them traveling from the densely populated Yangtze River Delta region that surrounds Shanghai.
The smaller, older terminal operated at about three times its intended capacity, but actually was managed very efficiently. A passenger often could arrive, check in and be on a plane in a half-hour or less.
The new, bigger terminal will require walks of nearly 20 minutes from security for some of its most distant gates, but will have 80 check-in counters and 47 security gates for fast service, officials say.
