Taoyuan International Airport Corp is planning to build a smaller terminal prior to the construction of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal Three to cope with a rapid increase in the number of passengers arriving in the nation.
The airport’s Terminal One and Terminal Two have a combined capacity of 32 million passengers per year. However, the airport’s passenger volume last year topped 35 million and is estimated to exceed 40 million this year.
Although there are already plans to build Terminal Three, construction is not expected to be completed until 2020. The company has also begun a project to expand the area of Terminal Two, which is scheduled to be completed in 2017.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
While the Terminal Two expansion project is to increase the facility’s capacity by 5 million passengers per year, the firm said further expansions are needed, as it estimates that the number of passengers serviced by the airport is to grow at a pace of about 10 percent per year.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇) yesterday confirmed that a smaller Terminal Four is to be built first, adding that the airport had already briefed the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Executive Yuan about its preliminary plan and is ironing out the details of the project.
According to the company, the increase in passenger volume at the airport in recent years was caused by a rise in the number of tourists arriving in the nation via direct cross-strait flights.
Meanwhile, more Taiwanese have been encouraged to go abroad by a growing number of countries offering visa-waiver programs to travelers from Taiwan.
The company said that it would use the space occupied by Terminal One’s parking lot to build Terminal Four, which is projected to be able to service 5 million travelers per year and accommodate four narrow-body aircraft and one wide-body airplane simultaneously.
While the capacity of Terminal Three is projected to reach 45 million passengers per year by 2042, the firm estimated that 86 million travelers will pass through the airport yearly by 2042, necessitating the construction of Terminal Four to help meet demand.
The company plans for Terminal Four to employ an automated system to automatically adjust lighting and air-conditioning based on the number of passengers inside the terminal.
The company has yet to decide whether to relocate some airlines from Terminals One and Two to Terminal Four, or to allow budget airlines to use the new structure.
SOLIDARITY: A group of European lawmakers condemned China’s aggressive moves, while the foreign minister of Lithuania said Taiwan ‘cannot become a second Ukraine’ A German parliamentary delegation would visit Taiwan in the first week of October, German lawmaker Holger Becker on Monday told visiting Democratic Progressive Party legislators Fan Yun (范雲) and Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) at the Bundestag in Berlin. Asked by Fan whether he is worried about possible reprisals from Beijing, such as banning him and his family from entering China, Becker said he is more interested in visiting Taiwan, as “now is the time for democracies to stand together.” Fan and Lin also met with German officials to exchange views on digital education and governance. Investing in digital infrastructure and protecting equal rights to
As China waged extensive military exercises off Taiwan, a group of US defense experts in Washington was focused on their own simulation of an eventual — but for now entirely hypothetical — US-China war over the nation. The unofficial what-if game is being conducted on the fifth floor of an office building not far from the White House, and it posits a US military response to a Chinese invasion in 2026. Even though the participants bring a US perspective, they are finding that a US-Taiwan victory, if there is one, could come at a huge cost. “The results are showing that under
‘SIMULATED ATTACKS’: Ten warships each from China and Taiwan were maneuvering at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line Taiwan yesterday reiterated that it would not succumb to pressure from Beijing after China carried out its most provocative military drills in decades in retaliation for US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last week. “We will never bow to pressure. We uphold freedom and democracy, and believe Taiwanese disapprove [of] China’s bullying actions with force and saber rattling at our door,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday. China had “arrogantly” disrupted regional peace and stability, he said, calling on Beijing to not flex its military muscles. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has also called on the international community to “support
DRILLS CONTINUE: China’s creation of a restricted zone across the median line of the Taiwan Strait challenges a 70-year-old fact, a ministry of defense official said The nation’s military fully complies with international rules and guidelines when responding to Chinese military drills, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, vowing to continue defending Taiwan in accordance with international law. China on Thursday launched four days of military drills around Taiwan proper in response to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. The drills were expected to end on Sunday, but neither Beijing nor Taipei confirmed their conclusion, although the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said it had seen some evidence suggesting at least a partial drawdown. However, China yesterday said the drills would continue, saying “the