Travelers will find it easier to take cars or buses and enjoy fresh air at the second terminal building at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, project engineers said on February 29.

After three years of construction, the second terminal, which is to the east of the first one, is scheduled to open on March 26, making it in time for the Beijing Olympics.

In a quality appraisal conference on February 29, the new terminal building, with two new runways, was applauded by a panel of domestic experts.

However, as the project officials said, passengers using the new terminal will still have to personally carry their luggage between flights.

"The new terminal has better energy efficiency and is more convenient for passengers," Gu Chengdong, a project engineer with the Shanghai Airport Construction Headquarters, said on February 29.

The new three-story terminal has a total floor area of 540,000 square meters and is capable of handling 40 million passengers per year, officials said.

The first terminal building at the Pudong airport, which was opened in 1999, has a floor area of 280,000 square meters and handles 20 million passengers annually.

There are both elevated roads and a pedestrian corridor stretching more than 200 meters linking the two terminal buildings.

Passengers will be able to transfer from the Maglev or the Metro Line 2.

Arriving passengers will find it easier to find a taxi or buses which have stops right outside the arrival hall. In the first terminal building, the taxis are parked on a different floor, engineers said.

The new terminal building has also been designed with new energy-efficient facilities, which will cut the building's power consumption by 50 percent, engineers said.

Specially glazed panels are installed on the roof to allow the sun to penetrate, two huge water storage tanks are built near the terminal to help reduce the power consumption of air-conditioning and the windows are scientifically designed to enhance ventilation with natural air.