The north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 is scheduled to begin operations in the middle of next year, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday.
The Terminal 3 project was launched as the number of air travelers accessing the nation’s largest international airport each year has already exceeded the combined capacity of terminals 1 and 2.
The two existing terminals were designed to be accessed by 37 million air travelers per year. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, about 48.36 million accessed the airport in 2019.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
The airport operator yesterday organized a field trip for reporters to see Terminal 3 construction sites.
TIAC chairman Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) told reporters that 26 million air travelers had accessed the airport as of last month, and the number of the air travelers accessing the airport this year could potentially be 44 million to 45 million, which is about 92 to 94 percent of the 2019 level.
Once Terminal 3 is completed, the airport’s passenger service capacity would expand to 82 million travelers per year from 37 million, Yang said.
The company estimated that more than 50 million passengers are to access the airport per year by 2028.
Based on the company’s plan, Terminal 3 would be mainly used for flight services connecting North America and Southeast Asian nations offered by China Airlines, EVA Airways and Starlux Airlines.
As of last month, the nation had welcomed about 3.936 million transit passengers, up from 3.46 million during the same period last year.
About 77 percent of the airport’s transit passengers this year were those traveling between North America and Southeast Asia, TIAC data showed.
Approximately 40 percent of transit travelers flew from the US or Canada to Southeast Asian nations, data showed.
So far, 42.3 percent of the Terminal 3 project — the terminal, aprons, taxiways, substations, an energy center and an office building — has been completed, about 1 percent behind the construction schedule, the company said.
Although the entire Terminal 3 project would not be completed until 2027, the north concourse is scheduled to begin operations in the middle of next year, which could add eight more aircraft parking spaces to the airport, the company said.
The cost of the project is now estimated to be NT$128.37 billion (US$3.97 billion), up from the previous estimate of NT$95.6 billion, due to inflation and other factors, the company said.
The terminal per se costs about NT$44.53 billion. Its rooftop area is about 100,000m2, which is nearly three times larger than the Taipei Dome. The aggregate floor area is about 580,000m2, the company said.
Yang cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the high turnover rate of migrant workers as the two biggest challenges the project has faced, adding that the problem with the migrant workers was addressed by changing human resources agencies.
TIAC sustained substantial financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, turning it from a profitable firm to one in debt.
As of last year, the company had NT$5.4 billion of accumulated financial losses, Yang said.
“We have a very good chance to cover the losses this year due to the return of air travelers. However, we still need to spend about NT$300 billion in the next few years building the third runway and other infrastructure,” he said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS