Shanghai Pudong Airport

Customer Reviews

3 star Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 189 reviews
3/10
3 star Skytrax Rating
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4/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Ireland)

Transited here from Auckland travelling on to London Heathrow. When exiting the plane there was a lady standing with some paper showing transfer airlines and fight numbers with an arrow on it. This was the only direction given to passengers to transfer there is a long walk - mostly with out any signs at all indicating where to go. When finding the transfer desk there was queues but staff here were polite. After this again there was a lack of signs and again at security - where staff were rude. Good variety of places to eat and lots of places to sit. Shops did not have a wide variety and catered for mainly more expensive prices. Changed some money here staff were also rude it is also difficult to communicate with some staff as their English is poor (which is understandable but it would be good to have one or two members of staff to communicate with). Long delays of 2.5 hrs while on the plane waiting to take off - due to "air traffic control" problems - but some local domestic flights were landing and taking off while we were waiting - seems priority is given to these and international flights are left to wait. - causing me to miss a connecting flight at London. Overall too much hassle and would rather transit through HKG instead - will avoid Shanghai at all costs in future!
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
na

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Canada)

Shanghai Pudong (PVG) is the worst run airport that I have used. I frequently fly through this airport and I have never had a flight leave on time. I would say that if you leave within 2 hours of the original scheduled time consider yourself lucky. No one ever knows why-even if the weather is good the delays can last hours and hours. I would advise anyone to avoid this airport. Yesterday on a flight from Shanghai Pudong to HKG the flight left almost 6 hours late-even though the weather in Shanghai was clear. The only explanation ever given is that there are ATC delays. I sometimes get the feeling that priority is given to the local Chinese airlines and the international airlines get messed about!
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
7/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Australia)

Glad to see the international transfer procedure has improved since my last time at Pudong airport a few years ago. Once you get out of the plane there is an International transfer desk where you present your ongoing boarding pass and passport they stamp and sign your boarding pass and then you can walk through to the international transfer gate through security and up to the terminal waiting area. There is free wireless Internet electrical plugs to recharge your gadgets (no adapters needed for Australian and uk plugs and there is even USB ports) several smoking rooms restaurants and tax free shops. Nothing fancy and the food and drinks are quite overpriced. Paid AU $ 10 for a takeaway coffee! There are plenty of benches to sit on that also would be quite comfortable to lay down and have a sleep on.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
yes
na

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Philippines)

I was flying Cebu Pacific to Manila and checked-in online and already had my boarding pass printed out. Upon entering immigration there was minor fuss because the officers were inept at reading the boarding pass (they didn't know that 'PVG-MNL' signified my route so I had to explain to them the intricacies of my pass). Then at immigration I was denied entry and told that my boarding pass was not valid because it might be a fake which totally did not make sense. I was ordered to go back to the check-in hall and wait for the check in counter to open (only 2 hours before the flight) and issue me an 'official' boarding pass. The officers were quite unapologetic. Pudong may be a modern airport but the people running it are rudimentary.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
3/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Australia)

I'll be going from Melbourne to Paris via PVG in July and would like to know in advance the 'current' procedures so my question in response to the earlier post is "Why is there no-one at the International Transfer Desk?" Twelve months ago was a nightmare at both PVG and PEK when we were transiting through to London so I hope it will have improved 18 months later.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
2/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Japan)

Sapporo to Singapore via Shanghai. On my first leg I seemed to be the only person doing an international transfer so it was quick and easy. There was no one at the transfer desk so I made my way straight to security. The maze you walk through following the international transfer arrows was easy enough. On the return transferring was a nightmare. My flight landed at 4.30am along with at least 3 other flights and when we arrived in the transfer hall there was again no one at the transfer desk. I didn't see a single staff member anywhere for a good hour. I bypassed the desk it and waited in security line which at that point was also unmanned. Everyone waiting was confused about where to go and what to do. We didn't see a single staff member until nearly 6am when they told us we needed to go to the transfer desk first and kicked us all out of line. At that point several other flights had landed and we found ourselves at the back of the line. Took 1.5 hours before I finally got to the desk where they looked at my ticket and passport than waved me through. With probably more than 6 planes worth of people waiting they only had one lane open in security? That added another 45 minutes of wait time. So that was over 3 hours just to transfer flights. I will make sure to avoid it if at all possible in the future.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
5/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(China)

I often fly via PVG since it is Shanghai's main international airport. It is big well connected to the city (Maglev train 10min metro 45min tax 50min bus 1hr) and in my opinion it has the potential to reach the level of other Asian hubs like Hong Kong or Singapore. Queuing time for passport controls (especially for departures as arrivals seem to be much better) could be reduced and more facilities (restaurants bars shops) could be added to the departure hall (of both T1 and T2). Even smaller domestic airports like Chengdu or Hangzhou are better equipped from this point of view. The main problem however is the duty free area: bars/restaurants are expensive and of average quality shops are few and look all the same. An international airport should a better variety (see Shanghai Hongqiao Airport for example). Last but not least if the airport really aims to become a regional hub procedures for national/international transfers should be streamlined and all dedicated staff should be fluent in English. Overall however I will give a pass mark considering the cleanliness architecture and space of the airport.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
yes
na

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Japan)

My first time at this airport and the impression was not good. My family flew out of Japan for Singapore. The transfer process is a bit odd. We come out of the terminal and there is a line that says 'International Transfers'. Naturally I head for that. Turns out I first had to go to a counter where they checked our boarding passes/passports. Then I could follow the directions for transfer. The second stop was a counter where our boarding passes/passports were checked again. After that was a security check. From there we could head back into the terminal which we really never left. We did not have to pick up our luggage and recheck it. In both directions luggage was checked all the way through to our final destination. We also had boarding passes and seats all the way through. There was a delay on the return leg due to 'air traffic control'. This seemed a bit odd as I saw several flights leave/arrive during the time we were delayed. Fortunately we left in time to make it to Japan. The frustrating part was that our gate was changed without notification. When checking in for transfer we were told Gate 17. Getting back into the waiting area it turned out it was Gate 16. After the delay our flight actually left Gate 14. The airport is not dirty but by no means is it Changi. It is not even NRT. The first thing I noticed was how it smelt. There were smoking areas but no real attempt is made at keeping that smell from the rest of the terminal. In the flight to SIN we were held in a downstairs part of T1 where we then proceeded out to our plane on buses and up a stairway.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
5/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(United States)

The transit wait was horrific. Most people on our flight were heading to Bangkok. We had a 3 hour layover thank goodness as it took almost 90 mins to transit. Only one very rude person was handling the transit queue. If not for this it would have been fine.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
no
7/10

Shanghai Pudong Airport customer review

(Hong Kong)

As a main airport in China Shanghai Pudong Airport is quite significant. The airport is new modern and quite big as well. Efficiency of the airport is not bad at all which is above average unexpected. Cleanliness satisfactory but some corners are a bit dirty and some places in the restricted area are messy. Facilities are okay for me as I was departing at night some of the stores were closed though. Overall nice airport to visit and will recommend this airport to others.
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
yes