Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Making full use of its newly completed second runway, as of Thursday Pudong International Airport will officially launch separate flight programs for the two parallel runways, the Laodong Daily reported.
With the new programs, both runways will handle flights departing from the airport, while the first runway will handle most of the arrivals.  In this way, the two airports in Shanghai will be capable of managing a combined 1,200 flights each day, 20 percent higher than the current capacity.
However, the Pudong airport will not increase the flight volume immediately in order to ensure flight safety, said officials with the East China branch of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
The authority will increase the volume gradually, starting May 8, to leave a grace period for pilots and air administrators to get accustomed to the new situation.
The second runway of the Pudong airport has been in operation since March 17.