Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Co (TTIA) yesterday said that it is planning to build capsule hotels at the airport to target the growing number of transit passengers.
The TTIA said that the airport, which aims to build capsule hotels in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal One and Terminal Two, has entrusted a professional advisory firm to evaluate the plan.
The firm will assess the demand for such accommodation facilities, the size of the hotels and rates.
The company said that the two planned capsule hotels are scheduled to become operational next year at the earliest.
Capsule hotels, which originated in Japan, feature a large number of extremely small sleeping spaces, which look like coffins.
The space only allows a guest to lie down, but the low cost of such accommodation is attractive for people who do not need the services offered by conventional hotels.
The plan comes as the number of transit passengers at Taoyuan airport surpassed 2.1 million last year, up from 2.09 million a year earlier.
Since Taiwan is expected to allow transits by Chinese travelers in the future, the number of transit passengers is expected to grow further, the TTIA said.
According to an estimate made by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, once Chinese travelers are allowed to make stopovers in Taiwan, the number of transit passengers is expected to rise by about 1 million a year and most of them will go through Taoyuan airport.
The TTIA said that the two capsule hotels are expected to attract no less than 200,000 guests a year.
Currently, Taoyuan airport has a transit hotel in Terminal Two, but because the hotel has only 22 rooms, the economies of scale are too small and the facility fails to meet demand, the TTIA said.
Meanwhile, the TTIA said that Taoyuan airport will tighten security by adding new X-ray machines. By the end of June, the number of security check lines in Terminal One will rise from the current four to six, and the number in Terminal Two is set to rise from five to eight, while the number in the transit areas will rise from nine to 14.
Last year, the number of travelers passing through the airport increased by an annual 11.15 percent to about 35.8 million, reaching a new record.
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