The passenger volume at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is estimated to top 100 million per year by 2042, the airport company said yesterday, adding that it has plans to expand the airport’s service capacity between this year and 2020 to meet the rising demand.
Taiwan International Airport Corp (TIAC) chief executive officer David Fei (費鴻鈞) said the airport’s self-service check-in facilities would increase drastically after the expansion of Terminal Two is completed in 2018 and the construction of Terminal Three is completed in 2020.
He said that check-in times would be reduced from 30 minutes to about 15 minutes.
The luggage processed through self-help check-in facilities only accounts for about 5 percent of the total amount of processed luggage, Fei said, adding that the company hopes to raise the percentage to 20 percent when the Terminal Two expansion project is completed and to 50 percent after Terminal Three becomes operational.
According to Fei, passenger volume at the airport is estimated to increase to between 45 million and 50 million per year by 2018, with the rate of growth reaching approximately 5 percent each year afterward.
Foreseeing the continued growth in passengers accessing the airport, Fei said the company had begun to gradually increase the airport’s service capacity, with most of the new facilities scheduled to be completed in 2018 or 2019.
Fei said the common-use self-service check-in system at the Airport Rail’s A1 station, which is inside the Taipei Railway Station, is scheduled to be completed next year.
In the meantime, four to 10 self-bag drop machines are to become available for use at the A1 station, Fei said, adding that these facilities would allow passengers to check in their luggage while they are still in Taipei.
Terminal Two would be able to accommodate an additional 5 million passengers per year after its service area is expanded, Fei said.
Meanwhile, 56 self-service check-in machines and 32 self-service bag drop systems would be available for use at the terminal’s check-in area, and the number of security-check lines inside the terminal would also be raised from eight to 20, he said.
Fei said the expanded Terminal Two would better serve transit passengers because the transit area would be three times larger than it is now.
Aside from the increase in the number of security-check lines from five to eight, he said that transit passengers would be able to enjoy various new facilities at the fourth and fifth floors inside the terminal, including restaurants, a capsule hotel, VIP rooms and a special exhibition zone for the National Palace Museum.
Though the construction of Terminal Three would not be finished until 2020, Fei said that a multifunctional building on the east side of Terminal Three would become operational in 2018. The facility would mainly be used as a check-in area for group travelers, which can accommodate 3.75 million passengers per year.
Fei said Terminal Four, which would be completed before Terminal Three is built, would be designed around the concept of a “Smart Terminal” and mainly serve business travelers and backpackers. Aside from the expedited check-in procedures, Fei said that passengers would access some of the advanced facilities in the terminal as well, which could serve 5 million passengers per year.
Fei said that the new facilities are expected to cost more than NT$74.8 billion (US$2.24 billion), and the company is expected to raise NT$10 billion on its own.
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