Pudong Airport sees 30 million cross-border travelers

Shanghai Pudong International Airport has recorded more than 30 million inbound and outbound passengers as of Oct 27.

This represents a 19.8 percent increase compared to the same period last year, reaching the milestone two months earlier than in 2024 and accounting for roughly one-quarter of all air passenger traffic across Chinese airports.

The surge is attributed to China's expanding visa-free policies, which now include unilateral visa-free arrangements with 47 countries and an extended 240-hour transit visa-free policy applicable to 55 countries.

Of the 30 million travelers, over 8.4 million were foreign nationals, marking a 41 percent year-on-year rise. The largest numbers of visitors came from Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

Visa-free entries accounted for nearly 2.3 million of these arrivals, representing more than half of all foreign entries.

Meanwhile, applications for the 240-hour transit visa-free policy increased by 76 percent compared with the period under the previous 144-hour policy.

Outbound travel by Chinese mainland residents via Pudong Airport also grew, reaching nearly 10 million, a 12 percent increase year-on-year.

Over 60 percent of these travelers chose destinations in neighboring countries and regions, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Macao, while long-haul travel to Europe increased by 5 percent.

With the start of the winter and spring aviation season, Pudong Airport plans to operate an average of 720 international, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan flights daily, connecting to 279 destinations in 48 countries.

The airport also plans to resume flights to New Delhi, India, introduce new destinations such as Buenos Aires, Argentina, and increase flight frequencies to Italy and London.