AIRPORT REPORT: TAOYUAN
Building for the future
President and CEO, Jerry Dann, tells Joe Bates more about the ambitions and future development plans of Taoyuan International Airport. Can you tell us more about your planned new Terminal 3 and how big a milestone is it for the airport? It is a huge milestone for Taoyuan International Airport [TPE] as it will boost the airport’s capacity by 45 million passengers per annum and offer new levels of service, operational efficiency and convenience to passengers, visitors and our airline customers. It is also the single biggest public engineering project currently underway in Chinese Taipei. Set to open in three annual phases between 2024 and 2026, the $3 billion terminal is badly needed as Taoyuan International Airport handled more than 48.6 million passengers 2019, far exceeding the 37 million passengers per annum design capacity of the current terminals. Looking slightly further ahead, it will become the main departure terminal for TPE’s planned new Runway 3, which is the next major infrastructure project on the airport’s agenda. What can we expect from Terminal 3 in terms of its design, size and facilities? The design concept of Terminal 3 differs greatly from T1 and T2. Its design has been inspired by Chinese Taipei’s beautiful landscapes, the seas surrounding it, the rhythms of nature and life to create a series of unique interior places beneath an elegant hard-shell roof. When fully built, Terminal 3 will cover an area of 640,000sqm, which will ensure a light and spacious environment for passengers and allow for the addition of a number of innovative and purpose-built facilities. In Terminal 3, for example, the retail/F&B offerings will be designed as a one-stop service with most outlets located in an area just beyond border control and the security checkpoint. The single designated space will enable us to offer a wider and more diversified shopping experience and dining choices to cater to the constantly changing needs of passengers.
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 1, 2022
As a result, the terminal’s concourses will serve mainly for boarding and rest, with necessary retail and dining options such as snack bars and souvenir shops. Will it be a high-tech terminal? Absolutely! Terminal 3 will be an intelligent terminal with 5G and Wi-Fi 6 wireless coverage throughout. It will boast common use self-service (CUSS) kiosks, self-bag drop (SBD) equipment and biometric technology to facilitate a touchless and smooth clearance procedure. At a higher level, we plan to use T3 as an incubation centre for new technologies. The plan is to invite the most innovative information and communications technology [ICT] companies to submit applications to test new technologies at TPE that could be used in an airport environment. We are specifically thinking of passenger flow, monitoring and guidance technology, baggage handling, and traffic analysis to accelerate efficiency and service levels. What next for TPE in terms of new infrastructure? Airport construction never stops. We actually expect to be heavily engaged in major engineering projects until at least 2030, with the previously mentioned third runway or R3 as we call it, the next big project. Chinese Taipei’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is currently working on the land acquisition procedure for the new runway as a part of TPE’s Taoyuan Aerotropolis Plan. After R3 we will build satellite concourses and new cargo and aircraft maintenance areas between the third runway and the existing north runway. We also have plans to develop a new Free Trade Zone. All of these projects are included in our 2040 airport master plan, which will be reviewed every five years to ensure the continued development of TPE and its status as one of the region’s top international airports.
