Since the start of this year's summer travel season, Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports have maintained high operational levels, handling an average of 2,430 flights per day with passenger volumes increasing compared to last year. Despite scorching temperatures, Shanghai airport employees remain steadfast at their posts, ensuring safe and smooth cargo and passenger transport. During this summer peak, Pudong Airport set a new record for daily flights, with the highest single-day refueling operations reaching 920 sorties at Pudong Aviation Oil Company. Refueling personnel, carrying heavy ground connection joints weighing about 60 jin, meticulously complete nearly 40 operational steps for each flight under the hot sun.
Guarding flights under the blazing sun are also the safety supervisors from airport ground services. At Shanghai Airport Ground Services, there is a women's safety supervisor team responsible for carefully reviewing and verifying flight departure load sheets, ensuring cargo tag information matches the actual cargo, and strictly supervising loading personnel to place luggage according to the specified sequence and storage compartments on the load sheet, thereby avoiding center-of-gravity deviations. After all cargo is loaded, a series of strict checks and inventory procedures are followed until the cargo door is closed. The summer travel season sees a peak in family and parent-child trips, and more luggage travels safely with its owners under their watchful care.
Pudong Airport's airfield area spans over 20 square kilometers. To protect the 58-kilometer-long apron perimeter, perimeter patrol officers conduct comprehensive inspections daily through vehicle and foot patrols. In recent years, with the deployment of a digital perimeter intrusion prevention system, over 250 equipment boxes and nearly 20,000 sensors have been installed along the perimeter, enabling a "technology + human" security management system that includes intrusion pre-alerts, automatic risk source assessment, and immediate on-site response coordination, effectively enhancing perimeter security levels. To ensure smooth landside traffic for arriving passengers, Pudong Airport this summer has set up 85 pickup points in the designated ride-hailing areas at P1 and P2 parking lots, with 8 smart information display screens providing real-time information on vehicle arrivals and parking spots to help passengers locate their rides. Parking lot grid managers are also deployed to guide ride-hailing vehicles to park properly and assist passengers with inquiries, including using translation devices to help foreign travelers book rides and find their vehicles.
This summer, Shanghai International Airport Co.,Ltd.'s cargo operations have seen significant year-on-year growth. At the Pudong Airport West Cargo Area freight terminal alone, nearly 50 flights per day are handled, processing over 1,000 tons of cargo. Cargo handlers work diligently to ensure the efficient inbound and outbound movement of high-timeliness goods such as cherries, mangosteens, mangoes, salmon, as well as automotive parts and precision equipment. Amidst the busy operations, safety remains a top priority. As guardians of apron safety, Hongqiao Airport’s airfield patrol officers conduct continuous two-hour inspections, covering nearly 200,000 square meters of apron area and monitoring nearly 200 flight takeoffs and landings per shift. The security checkpoint monitors at Hongqiao Airport are responsible for patrolling over 15 aircraft stands daily, logging more than 30,000 steps per day, covering a cumulative distance of over 20 kilometers. Technology also enhances safety at the Shanghai aviation hub; Hongqiao Airport's Aircraft Parking Guidance System (AGS) is now operational, guiding aircraft to park precisely at their stands. During the summer peak, the system operates at full capacity, and AGS administrators inspect all 54 aircraft stands across Hongqiao Airport daily, ensuring display information, brightness, and clarity meet standards.
Shanghai airport employees are dedicated to frontline flight operations, and the airport is implementing various measures to provide heat relief and care for its staff. The Shanghai Airport Authority has focused on 14 key operational points, including airfield, security, ground services, and logistics, to address employee concerns and continuously improve working and resting environments. This summer, 10 shared rest areas have been set up in the apron areas of both Pudong and Hongqiao airports, equipped with refrigerators, air conditioning, microwaves, water dispensers, phone charging stations, and heat-relief medication, serving approximately 3,000 apron staff daily. At the Pudong Phase 4 expansion project site, the Shanghai Airport Authority, together with construction partners, has adjusted work schedules based on heat warning levels, set up multiple tea stations and rest areas, and provided round-the-clock supplies of heat-relief beverages like mung bean soup. Medical staff from the airport's fire and rescue station also conduct regular patrols in the apron area, offering medical check-ups, distributing heat-relief medication, and educating on heat prevention health knowledge.
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