The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) yesterday said it is leaning toward a plan to demolish the two terminals at Kaohsiung International Airport and build a new one that can accommodate both domestic and international passengers.
The domestic and international terminals are currently connected by a 343m-long passageway.
With the number of international flights increasing, the CAA at the end of 2017 began proposing ways to revamp the airport’s terminals.
Photo: CNA
A proposal to tear down the two terminals and build a new one was considered after reviewing two other options, the CAA said.
The original plan was to demolish the domestic terminal and construct a new one on the site that could be accessed by domestic and international passengers, it said.
However, it dropped the idea because there would still have to be a passageway connecting the two terminals, it said.
It then proposed another plan at the beginning of this year, where a new international terminal would be built between the two existing terminals.
While there would be three terminals, on the outside people would see only one large terminal serving domestic and international passengers, it said.
The CAA abandoned the idea, because of the cost and difficulty of integrating the systems of the new and old terminals.
The original plan would have boosted the airport’s passenger capacity from 7 million annually to 10 million by 2035, but the new plan would further expand it to 16.5 million passengers by 2040, it said.
To ensure that construction would not disrupt the airport’s operation, the CAA said it would build half of the new terminal first, while operations at the existing facilities continue.
A comprehensive plan to revamp the terminals is to be finalized by the end of this year, it said, adding that it hopes the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee would review the project next year.
Construction of a new terminal, estimated to cost NT$38.4 billion (US$1.26 billion), is expected to commence in 2022 and take eight to 10 years, it said.
CAA statistics showed that passenger traffic hit a record 6.98 million last year, with international passenger numbers growing at an average of 5 percent in the past five years.
The CAA has spent NT$1.08 billion renovating the runways, with the work completed in May.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS