Taipei Taoyuan International airport is seeking government approval to build a new terminal to cope with the expected passenger growth at its already congested airport, before its planned third terminal comes into operation in 2020.
Speaking to Flightglobal at World Routes in Durban, Emily Yang from the airport’s business planning & marketing department explains that the proposed terminal will be smaller than the planned third terminal, and hence take a shorter time to build. Capacity of the proposed terminal has not been firmed, but the target is for the terminal to be operational by 2018.
The airport has issued the design tender for its planned third terminal, which will have a capacity of 45 million. Taoyuan is also expanding its terminal 2 to add five million to the airport's capacity.
In the first half of 2015, the airport increased passenger number 7%. This year, it is expecting to handle 40 million passengers, up from 35 million in 2014. This exceeds the airport’s 32 million capacity.
Taoyuan also faces runway constraints with the ongoing rehabilitation of one of its runways, leaving it with the ability to handle 36 aircraft movements per hour. When both runways are fully functional in January 2016, they will have a combined capacity to handle 50 aircraft movements per hour.
“Our growth rate is very high and we’re worried that we can’t wait till terminal 3 is up, so we’re building a smaller terminal to serve the growth first," says Yang. "Our challenge is really that our infrastructure is not keeping to pace with our passenger growth."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
