The airport is located near the town of Hongqiao in the outskirts of Changning and Minhang districts, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) west of downtown, and is closer to the city center than Shanghai–Pudong.

[2] By the end of 2011, Hongqiao Airport hosted 22 airlines serving 82 scheduled passenger destinations.

[5] In 1937, Hongqiao was the site of the so-called 'Oyama Incident' in which a Japanese lieutenant was shot dead by Chinese Peace Preservation Corps soldiers in the lead-up to the Battle of Shanghai.

The terminal was entirely built by China itself and was advanced for its time, equipped with many modern facilities such as barbershops, bookstores, banks, cafes, telecommunication offices, canteens, and even a hotel.

In the mid-1960s, Air France[7] and Lufthansa[8] both began service directly from Phnom Penh; however they were both suspended not long after.

In 1979, CAAC Airlines began services from Hongqiao to Nagasaki using a Boeing 707 aircraft; by 1985, a Trident[9] was used for just two flights a week.

Since 1981, Hongqiao Airport became a popular stopover for many airlines flying from Beijing to many other countries such as Canada, Japan and United States in particular.

[10] In 1985, Airbus-built aircraft started having hubs[11] in this airport, due to it being delivered to the CAAC's Shanghai division (which would then become China Eastern Airlines).

Since 1 January 2013, holders of valid passports issued by 45 countries have not needed a visa if transiting through Hongqiao Airport.

In preparation for the Shanghai Expo, on 16 March 2010, Hongqiao Airport completed a five-year 15.3-billion-yuan expansion project, which included a 3,300-meter (10,826 ft 9 in) second runway and the new Terminal 2, boosting Hongqiao's capacity to 40 million passengers a year.