Shanghai Hongqiao Airport Guide: The City’s Domestic Powerhouse
Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is a 50 million passenger domestic hub beside one of China's largest rail stations. Terminals, runways, routes, access and spotting.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport is the older and closer of Shanghai’s two airports, lying about 8 miles (13 km) west of the city centre across the Changning and Minhang districts. It handled just over 50 million passengers in 2025, which ranks it eighth in China and 42nd in the world. Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is overwhelmingly a domestic operation, with international flying restricted to a handful of short regional routes. Its real strength is integration, as Terminal 2 sits directly beside one of the largest high speed rail stations in the country.
Shanghai Hongqiao Airport at a Glance
The airport uses the IATA code SHA and the ICAO code ZSSS. It sits at an elevation of only 3 metres (10 feet) on the flat alluvial plain of the Yangtze delta. Two parallel runways and two terminals handle the traffic. The Shanghai Airport Authority, which also runs Pudong, operates the field.
Passenger numbers for 2025 came in at roughly 50.2 million, up around 4.6 per cent year on year. China Eastern and its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines treat Hongqiao as their home base, and Juneyao Air and Air China also run hubs here. Spring Airlines, the country’s biggest low cost carrier, keeps an operating base in Terminal 1. Terminal maps and transport updates are on the airport’s official website.
A Short History of Hongqiao
Construction started in 1921 beside the small town of Hongqiao, from which the airport takes its name. Mixed civil flying began in May 1923, although the official record dates the opening to July 1929. The field saw combat early. Chinese fighters based here engaged Japanese carrier aircraft during the Shanghai Incident of 1932, and the 1937 Oyama Incident at the airport gates helped trigger the Battle of Shanghai.
Military use continued after 1949, but the field reopened to civil flying in April 1964 after a rebuild and became Shanghai’s main gateway. Richard Nixon landed here on his landmark 1972 visit to China. The opening of Pudong in 1999 changed everything. Most international flights moved east, and Shanghai Hongqiao Airport settled into its current role as the domestic airport for business travellers who value proximity to the city.
The biggest turning point was the 15.3 billion yuan expansion completed in March 2010. It delivered the second runway and the vast Terminal 2, raising capacity to 40 million passengers and tying the airport to the new Hongqiao railway station. Terminal 1 was rebuilt from 2014, with Building A reopening in March 2017. International services stopped in March 2020 and did not resume until 26 March 2023.
Runways at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport
Two runways run north to south on parallel headings. Runway 18L/36R is the original strip, 3,400 metres (11,154 feet) long and 45 metres wide with an asphalt surface. Runway 18R/36L arrived with the 2010 expansion and measures 3,300 metres (10,826 feet) by 60 metres on concrete. They sit only a few hundred metres apart, too close for fully independent operations, so the pair works as a dependent system.
Northerly operations on the 36s are common in winter, when cold air flows down from the Yellow Sea. Summer monsoon winds often shift the flow to the 18s. Either way, aircraft on approach cross densely built suburbs, and the airport works under a strict noise and movement cap imposed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Safety history here includes a Japan Airlines overrun in 1982, a China Eastern takeoff crash in 1989 and a Korean Air Cargo McDonnell Douglas MD-11 that came down shortly after departure in 1999, killing eight people. In 2016 a China Eastern Airbus A320 taking off only just cleared a China Eastern A330 that controllers had wrongly sent across the runway. Shanghai Hongqiao Airport has since invested heavily in surface surveillance.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 2 is the dominant building, roughly four times the size of Terminal 1 and home to close to 80 per cent of domestic flying. China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Air China, China Southern, Hainan Airlines, Juneyao Air and most other mainline carriers operate from its long linear concourse. The building connects directly to the rail station and metro interchange under one roof.
Terminal 1 is the renovated original. It handles the limited international and regional schedule, including Hong Kong and Macau, plus Spring Airlines, Hebei Airlines and XiamenAir. Its scale suits the low cost operators and the compact international timetable. Lounges in both buildings serve the alliance partners of SkyTeam, Star Alliance and oneworld.
Because the two terminals sit on opposite sides of the runways, transfers between them take 20 to 30 minutes by shuttle bus or metro. Passengers connecting between a Spring Airlines arrival and a China Eastern departure should allow extra time.
Routes and Destinations
Beijing is the big one. The Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing Capital corridor, and increasingly the link to Beijing Daxing, is among the heaviest air routes anywhere, with departures roughly every 15 minutes through the morning peak. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi’an, Kunming and Xiamen follow.
International service from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is deliberately limited to five city pairs: Tokyo Haneda, Seoul Gimpo, Taipei Songshan, Hong Kong and Macau. These are all business shuttle routes between downtown airports, and they justify the wide body Airbus A330s and Boeing 787s that China Eastern and Japan Airlines use on them. Passengers from many countries can transit without a visa under China’s transit rules.
Seasonality is muted compared with leisure airports, but the Spring Festival exodus in January or February produces the busiest weeks of the year. Cargo plays a minor role, as freighters concentrate at Pudong.
Getting to and from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport
Rail is the obvious choice. Shanghai Hongqiao railway station adjoins Terminal 2 and serves the high speed lines to Beijing, Nanjing and Hangzhou, so a traveller can step off a flight and board a 300 km/h train within minutes. Shanghai Metro Lines 2 and 10 serve both the rail station and Terminal 2, while Line 10 also reaches Terminal 1 and Line 17 serves the station. Line 2 runs to People’s Square in around 35 minutes for a few yuan, the cheapest sensible option.
The Airport Link Line opened in December 2024 and connects Hongqiao with Pudong in about 40 minutes, finally giving the two airports a direct rail transfer. A taxi to the Bund costs roughly CNY 80 to 100 (around £9 to £11) and takes 40 minutes outside rush hour. The long discussed maglev extension to Hongqiao has been postponed indefinitely. Multi storey car parks sit beside both terminals.
Spotting and Photography
Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is one of the easier Chinese fields for enthusiasts because the terminals have large glass walls facing the aprons. The Terminal 2 departures level gives wide views over the domestic stands and Runway 18R/36L. Terminal 1 windows look across to the international gates and the older runway. The high speed rail station’s elevated walkways also offer angles on taxiing traffic.
Outside the fence, the residential blocks and roads at the southern end near Minhang see arrivals on the 36s at low altitude. Morning light works from the east side of the field, afternoon light from the west. Police patrols are frequent, so keep a low profile, avoid pointing lenses at military or security installations and leave promptly if asked. The reward is a dense mix of China Eastern, Juneyao and Air China types, from Comac C919s to Boeing 777s.
What Comes Next
Growth at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is bounded by a government movement cap and the policy decision to keep it domestic. The airport received a Skytrax five star rating in 2025, and current investment goes into service quality, surface access and digital processes rather than runways. The Airport Link Line will deepen its role as a multimodal interchange.
Capacity for new routes will come from larger aircraft rather than more slots. Expect the Comac C919 and more A321neos on trunk routes, with little change to the international map unless Beijing relaxes the five route limit. Shanghai Hongqiao Airport will stay the quickest way into the city, which is exactly what its business travellers want. See how it compares on our Airports of the World map.
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