[2] Pudong Airport had two main passenger terminals, flanked on both sides by four operational parallel runways.

During the 1990s, the expansion of Hongqiao Airport to meet growing demand became impossible as the surrounding urban area was developing significantly, and an alternative to assume all international flights had to be sought.

[citation needed] After deliberation, the municipal government decided to adopt the suggestion from Professor Chen Jiyu of East China Normal University, who wrote a letter to the Mayor of Shanghai Xu Kuangdi[citation needed] suggesting that the new airport should be constructed on the tidal flats of the south bank of the Yangtze River estuary, on the coast of the Pudong development zone to the east of Shanghai.

[citation needed] Shanghai Pudong International Airport was officially opened on 1 October 1999.

[7] A second runway was opened on 17 March 2005,[8] and construction of phase two (including a second terminal, a third runway and a cargo terminal) began in December 2005 and started operation on 26 March 2008, in time for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.

In November 2011, Pudong Airport received approval from the national government for a new round of expansion which includes two runways.

The 3,800-metre (12,467 ft) fourth runway, along with an auxiliary taxiway and traffic control facilities, is projected to cost 2.58 billion yuan (US$403 million).

It will have an annual design capacity of 38 million passengers, The total cost of the project is estimated to be about 20.6 billion yuan.

By 6 January 2021, work on Pudong Airport T3 began on the south side of the airfield.

It currently has 204 check-in counters, thirteen luggage conveying belts and covers an area of 280,000 square metres.

Construction on an additional satellite concourse facility that could accommodate further gates and terminal space started on 29 December 2015 and officially opened in September 2019.

[16] It is the largest stand-alone satellite airport terminal buildings in the world at 622,000 square meters.

Both S1 and S2 are connected together and are since the opening in September 2019 connected by an 7.8-kilometre (5 mi) underground Shanghai Pudong Airport APM to the current T1 and T2 terminals operated by Shanghai Keolis for 20 years,[18][19] including the East Line and the West Line.

The operating section of the East Line is 1.65 kilometres (1 mi) long, connecting Terminal 2 and Satellite 2, and the operating section of the West Line is 1.86 kilometres (1 mi) long, connecting Terminal 1 and Satellite 1.

By June 2017, Shanghai Pudong airport recorded 62.7% punctuality rate, which was a 15% increase compared to the same period previous year.