Air cargo volume increases at Pudong Airport. Provided to China Daily

Logistics business at Shanghai airports has surged in the past decade, bolstering the nation’s economic growth and turning Pudong Airport into a global cargo hub.

Their annual take-off and landing flights rose from 329,900 in 2004 to 615,100 in 2013 while annual passenger flow increased from 35.91 million to 82.79 million.

The cargo and mail volume local airports handled last year reached 3.34 million tons, ranking third in the world. 93 foreign airlines arranged air routes to China and there were flights from 239 Chinese and foreign cities to Shanghai.

The Pudong International Airport and the Hongqiao International Airport completed their expansion projects in 2008 and 2010 respectively. Currently, with four terminals, five runways and three cargo and mail transfer centers, the two airports can handle more than 80 million passengers and 4.7 million tons of cargo annually.

In the past decade, Pudong Airport, one of the most important air hubs in China, has developed into an international cargo terminal with a 2.91 million-ton cargo and mail capacity in 2013, up from 1.64 million tons in 2004.

Pudong has become the world’s thirdlargest airport in terms of cargo-handling capacity, ahead of South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, Narita Airport in Japan and the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in the United States.

Currently, 37 cargo airlines have flights to Pudong Airport and more than 1,000 flights land at the airport weekly.

Goods delivered from Pudong Airport last year were mainly electronic products, vehicles, textiles and medicines last year, valued at more than $300 billion.

UPS, DHL and FedEx have set up their transfer centers at the airport to better meet growing demand. Chinese carriers, such as Air China and China South Airlines, handle 80 percent of their cargo at Pudong Airport.

The airport’s bonded zone, set up in 2010, has become part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, allowing cargo from overseas to be unpacked, sorted and repackaged after it arrives at the airport on the basis of its different destination points. When the cargo is reshipped, it is not necessary to pay duties on it or have it checked by Customs.