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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS