Boeing Shanghai Aviation Service Co., a JV launched last year by Boeing, Shanghai Airlines and Shanghai Airport Group, expects its hangar at Pudong to be operational in 2009, company CEO Timothy Premselaar said.

The hangar will be constructed in two phases. At the conclusion of the first in April 2009 it will hold two 747s or two 777s, and by 2010 its capacity is expected to double.

BSASC said the hangar will be engaged mainly in aircraft reconfiguration.

CAAC Chief Aviation Expert Yu Zhenfa has said that approximately three-quarters of the freighters in China have been reconfigured from passenger aircraft.