Pudong or Hongqiao: choosing between Shanghai's two airports

Shanghai has two main airports: Pudong International (PVG) and Hongqiao International (SHA). Travellers often spend the weeks before a trip deciding which one to book, but that question is mostly aimed in the wrong direction: which airport you land at was usually settled the moment you chose the flight. What is actually yours to control is the transfer, the timing and the luggage around the airport you have. This guide sets out the real differences, how to move between the two, and the mistakes that recur.

Fare amounts, last-departure times and precise journey times are omitted throughout, because they change with the operator; trust the station fare table, the day’s notices and the figure shown in your ride-hailing app.

What each airport is for, and why choosing is usually not up to you

Pudong International (PVG) sits in the east of Pudong New Area, roughly thirty kilometres from the city centre, and is Shanghai’s main international gateway: the great majority of long-haul intercontinental flights use it. It has two main terminals, T1 and T2, which you can walk between, plus satellite concourses reached by a people mover, so a gate number tells you less about your walking time than you would hope.

Hongqiao International (SHA) sits on the western side of the city, far closer to the centre, and handles domestic and regional traffic. It shares one integrated transport hub with Hongqiao Railway Station. Our guide to getting around Shanghai notes that Hongqiao airport sits on Metro Lines 2 and 10; confirm the exact line and station on the day’s map and station signs. The practical meaning of that pairing: if your trip is a high-speed train into Shanghai followed by a domestic flight, Hongqiao removes one crossing of the entire city.

As for which is better to book: terminal assignments, schedules and route changes are all decided by the airlines and the airport, and the traveller only sees the result. The more useful approach is:

• Before booking, treat the airport code as a hard constraint and reason from where you need to be in Shanghai. Staying or working on the Puxi side makes Hongqiao clearly less trouble; a base in Pudong New Area, or a long-haul route, makes Pudong close to the only option.
• Once the ticket is issued, work backwards from the arrival airport and settle the transfer method and your margin in one pass, rather than researching it after you land.
• Booking on the strength of the word “Shanghai” alone is the most common version of this mistake.

Distance and transfer time: how big the gap is

Pudong is about thirty kilometres from the centre; Hongqiao is a fraction of that. This is not a difference of a few kilometres but of order of magnitude. In practice: getting into town from Pudong takes a substantial stretch of the day, typically more than an hour even when things go well, and longer at peak hours, in rain or late at night; from Hongqiao you reach the centre, or the rail network, much sooner after landing.

Exactly how long depends on traffic and on how the ground transport connects, so no single figure holds for every day. What does hold is that the tighter your schedule, the heavier your bags and the more people you are shepherding, the more the gap shows. A safe habit is to treat a Pudong landing as half a day and a Hongqiao landing as an hour or two.

Ground transport: what each side offers

The two airports are configured along the same lines: rail, taxis, ride-hailing and airport buses, with the maglev as an extra at Pudong.

Rail. Pudong has a direct metro line into the city, with a same-platform change at Guanglan Road on some services, so follow the in-station announcements and that day’s signs; the maglev covers only the airport-to-Longyang Road leg, after which you still change to the metro, and it suits light packers, anyone wanting to try it once, or a stay near Longyang Road. Hongqiao is close enough that rail access is comparatively straightforward, but it too is split into T1 and T2, and each terminal has its own station and entrances, so confirm before you set off.

Taxis and ride-hailing. Both airports have official taxi ranks and designated ride-hailing pickup areas; the ride-hailing point is not the taxi queue and drivers usually phone to confirm where you are. From Pudong the journey is long, so the metered fare is naturally higher, with a night surcharge on top; from Hongqiao the ride is short and the cost correspondingly smaller. Ignore anyone in the hall who approaches you asking where you are going.

Airport buses and hotel pickups. Both airports run buses to several main districts, with frequencies and last departures that shift with the season; they are worth it only if your accommodation sits near a stop. At either airport, the most reliable late-night option is a pre-booked pickup or ride-hailing.

One caveat: we do not assert specific metro line numbers, first and last train times, or fare amounts here. Trust the station fare table, the station timetable and the day’s notices.

Moving between the two airports

If a trip requires landing at one and departing from the other, there is no shortcut and no dedicated express link between them. The options are rail (cheap, but you are changing trains with your luggage, so it takes a long time overall), a taxi or ride-hailing car (point to point, expensive), and some airport bus routes (whether they run, and their last departures, shift with the season, so confirm on the day). The maglev does not connect the two airports, so do not count it as a transfer.

Allow half a day for a cross-airport transfer, not an hour or two. Avoid the pairing at the booking stage if you can: if you can fly into and out of the same airport, do that rather than splitting the two. When you cannot, leave a generous margin between the legs and avoid combinations such as a late Pudong arrival followed by an early Hongqiao departure.

Luggage, late arrivals and early departures

With luggage, Hongqiao is plainly easier. Short distance, a simple route and few changes are the reasons: the same few bags become a much longer haul at Pudong. Neither airport lacks facilities — escalators, lifts and luggage carts are all there — so the real bottleneck is distance and waiting, and luggage is best counted as extra time rather than extra difficulty.

Late arrivals. Public transport stops comparatively early at both airports, so a late landing leaves taxis, ride-hailing or night buses. The difference is the queue and the length of the ride: Pudong means a longer wait and a longer way into town, while from Hongqiao you can be at your accommodation soon after landing. Do not gamble on the last metro.

Early departures. An early flight means counting backwards from the check-in time, and leaving from Pudong means setting off earlier; because Hongqiao is close, the pressure is far smaller. Whether you make an early flight, though, depends on the actual schedule and the day’s traffic, not on which airport is “better”.

The mistakes people make, and what has to be confirmed on the day

• Booking on the word “Shanghai” without reading the airport code, then discovering the airport is the wrong one. Pudong is PVG; Hongqiao is SHA.
• Assuming you can change airports after the ticket is issued. Usually you cannot, and the cost of changing is set by the airline’s terms.
• Treating Hongqiao airport and Hongqiao Railway Station as the same thing. They share a hub but do different jobs; do not work from memory.
• Underestimating an international departure from Pudong by timing check-in, security and the possible satellite-hall shuttle as if it were a domestic flight.
• Planning a late landing on a daytime timetable, and gambling on the last metro or the maglev.
• Following an unbooked “private car” tout, or a driver holding up a sign, inside the arrivals hall. A pre-booked meet-and-greet, where the driver waits with your name at the exit, is a different product and usually the safer one.
• Reading distance off a map without reading the traffic, and assuming a run between the two airports is quick.

Last train times, fare amounts, whether a cross-airport bus is running, terminal assignments, check-in row locations and walking distances all change. We publish no figures for them precisely because any figure would soon be out of date. Three things are worth confirming before you fly: the airport code and terminal on your itinerary, the day’s last public transport from the airport you land at, and whether the transfer you are relying on is actually running. Once those three are settled, Pudong or Hongqiao stops being a question worth agonising over.