A record 135-million-passenger system, Pudong’s sixth straight service crown, and the visa-free wave that made Shanghai China’s front door again.
Shanghai runs the largest two-airport system in Asia and, on international traffic, the most important gateway in China — a record 2025 built on the visa-free policy and a restored route map.
135+ million passengers across Pudong and Hongqiao in 2025, up 8.3%, on 839,000 aircraft movements (+4.5%) — historic highs on every core indicator, with cargo at 4.5 million tonnes (+7.9%).
Pudong handled 84.99 million (+10.7%) and was named ACI’s best Asia-Pacific airport over 40 million passengers for the sixth consecutive year; transfer traffic grew 14% to 13.75 million.
Hongqiao passed 50 million for the first time — the domestic complement that makes the two-airport system bigger than most countries’ entire aviation sectors.
The border story: Pudong crossed 30 million inbound-and-outbound travelers by October 27 — two months earlier than 2024 — with over 8.4 million foreign nationals (+41%) and Japan, South Korea and the United States leading; Shanghai ports processed 42.85 million cross-border trips for the year, China’s top air gateway for the 23rd consecutive year.
The network: 302 destinations in 54 countries — a record — with the single-day city record reset at 424,900 passengers during the 2026 Spring Festival.
Shanghai’s airports are the clearest instrument panel on China’s reopening. Every policy lever — visa-free entry, the 240-hour transit rule, the digital arrival card — shows up in the arrival statistics within months. The system’s 135 million is impressive; the trajectory is the story. When a border moves from “managed” to “open by default,” the gateway city captures the difference, and Shanghai has captured it faster than any rival in Asia.
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