By the mid-1990s Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport was saturated, and China's booming commercial capital needed a second gateway. Construction began in 1997 on reclaimed tidal flats beside the East China Sea in the Pudong development zone. The airport opened in October 1999 with a single runway and the graceful, wave-roofed Terminal 1 designed by Paul Andreu. International flights shifted from Hongqiao, instantly making Pudong the city's global front door and one of the fastest-growing airports on Earth.
Expansion has barely paused since. Terminal 2 and a third runway opened in 2008, additional runways followed, including a fifth used partly for COMAC flight testing.
In 2019 the S1 and S2 satellite concourses opened, together forming the largest satellite terminal complex in the world, linked to the main terminals by an underground people mover.
In 2004 the airport gained a unique connection when the Shanghai Maglev began whisking passengers toward the metro at 431 kilometers per hour, still the fastest commercial train service anywhere. Pudong grew into the main international hub for China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines and a perennial member of the world's top three cargo airports, anchoring the Yangtze Delta's export economy.