Nearly 1,000 travelers accessed the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s new Terminal 3 yesterday during the first day of its trial run, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said.
Eight of the boarding gates at the north concourse (D11 to D18) are scheduled to become available this year, which would help the airport serve an additional 5.8 million passengers per year, the company said.
Currently, passengers who are to board flights at the north concourse must enter through Terminal 2.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
A total of 968 passengers boarded three flights — operated by China Airlines, EVA Airways and Starlux Airlines — via the boarding gates at the north concourse yesterday morning, the airport operator said.
The three Taiwanese international flight carriers are today to operate six flights departing from the north concourse, it added.
The trial is to verify the soundness of operating procedures at the north concourse by having passengers access the facility throughout the day, TIAC said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
It allows the company to gather feedback from airlines and passengers before official operations begin at the end of the year, it said.
The company met with the airlines and ground service personnel after the first day of operation, receiving suggestions such as raising the volume of announcements at boarding gates to distinguish them from that of the airport’s central broadcasting system, TIAC president Fan Hsiao-lun (范孝倫) said.
“We would take this type of feedback under advisement and improve operations to ensure that the north concourse opens under optimal conditions,” he said, adding that an official opening date has yet to be determined.
The north concourse features many new elements, such as expansive glass curtain walls and exterior sun shades at the waiting area, as well as a reddish orange exterior for the boarding bridges.
It is also equipped with a bidirectional moving walkway, and public art installations on the walls.
A passenger surnamed Wang (王), who was bound for Sapporo, Japan, said he was impressed by the brightness, spaciousness and technology vibe of the facility.
To celebrate the first day of the trial operation, passengers were given a bag of Taiwanese snack Kuaikuai (乖乖) as a gift.
Eighty-three percent of Terminal 3 has been completed, and it is scheduled to be operational by 2027, TIAC chairman Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) said.
The airport’s passenger volume reached 48.69 million in 2019, doubling from 24 million a decade earlier, with an average annual growth rate of about 7.5 percent, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) said.
During that period, the ministry and TIAC sought to expedite the planning and commissioning of Terminal 3, Lin said.
The combined capacity of the existing terminals is about 37 million passengers per year, and once complete, Terminal 3 would be capable of accommodating 45 million travelers, raising the overall capacity to about 82 million passengers, he said.
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