Travelers departing from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are likely to experience severe flight delays starting on Friday, with the northern runway scheduled to close for major renovations.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Co (TIAC) said the northern runway has been in use for more than 30 years and needs to be renovated to meet higher aviation safety requirements necessitated by a dramatic increase in flights.
The airport company said that it was following the model adopted by Germany’s Frankfurt Airport and has divided the renovation work into three stages.
Photo: Taipei Times
The northern runway would be upgraded to a Category 3 runway through the renovation, conforming with the specifications stipulated in Annex 14 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the company said.
“We already have experience using only one runway when we closed the southern runway for renovation,” the company said in a statement. “The experience will help us complete the renovation of the northern runway.”
The southern runway was reopened on Jan. 8 this year after a renovation that lasted for almost one year.
The airport sees an average of 600 flights per day, which would land and depart on the southern runway after the renovation on the northern runway begins.
The airport said that the peak hours for outbound flights when the renovation work starts on Friday will be from 7am to 9am and between 5pm and 6pm. Peak hours for inbound flights will be between 4pm and 5pm and 10pm and 11pm.
During peak hours, aircraft will have to line up to wait for their turn to take off or to land.
Although the airport company promised to work closely with the airlines and control tower personnel to ease congestion and minimize the impact of the renovation, many airline companies expect that flights will be delayed by between 20 and 30 minutes.
Feng Chia University Department of Transportation Technology and Management associate professor Lee Ker-tsung (李克聰) said that the company should not simply ask the passengers to arrive at the airport early to avoid delays.
It should speak with carriers to see if the peak hour flights can be moved to off-peak hours, he said.
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