Pudong International Airport's long-awaited fourth runway is expected to open in March. According to Le Derun, president of the Shanghai Airport Authority, the aircraft are occasionally required to taxi from Terminal 2 to a runway near Terminal 1, which wastes a lot of time. The fourth runway is expected to reduce the time that aircraft spend taxiing before takeoff and reduce delays.

The fourth runway, which is 3,800 meters long and 60 meters wide, was approved in 2011 and work began the following year. With the new runway, Pudong airport's annual capacity is expected to reach 60 million passengers, with 555,000 takeoffs and landings a year.

In addition, a fifth runway is being built next to the fourth, and the two runways will cost a total of 9.4 billion yuan ($1.5 billion). The fourth and fifth runways will provide a testing ground for the Chinese-made C919 narrow-body aircraft and China's ARJ21 regional jet in the future.

The fourth runway is 440 meters east of the second runway, while the fifth will be 1,750 meters east of the fourth.

distributed by