Taipei Taoyuan to Have Fourth Terminal

Taoyuan International Airport Corp is planning to build a smaller terminal prior to the construction of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport's Terminal Three to cope with a rapid increase in the number of passengers arriving in the nation.

The airport's Terminal One and Terminal Two have a combined capacity of 32 million passengers per year. However, the airport's passenger volume last year topped 35 million and is estimated to exceed 40 million this year.

Although there are already plans to build Terminal Three, construction is not expected to be completed until 2020. The company has also begun a project to expand the area of Terminal Two, which is scheduled to be completed in 2017.

While the Terminal Two expansion project is to increase the facility's capacity by 5 million passengers per year, the firm said further expansions are needed, as it estimates that the number of passengers serviced by the airport is to grow at a pace of about 10 percent per year.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Chien-yu yesterday confirmed that a smaller Terminal Four is to be built first, adding that the airport had already briefed the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Executive Yuan about its preliminary plan and is ironing out the details of the project.

According to the company, the increase in passenger volume at the airport in recent years was caused by a rise in the number of tourists arriving in the nation via direct cross-strait flights.

Meanwhile, more Taiwanese have been encouraged to go abroad by a growing number of countries offering visa-waiver programs to travelers from Taiwan.

The company said that it would use the space occupied by Terminal One's parking lot to build Terminal Four, which is projected to be able to service 5 million travelers per year and accommodate four narrow-body aircraft and one wide-body airplane simultaneously.

While the capacity of Terminal Three is projected to reach 45 million passengers per year by 2042, the firm estimated that 86 million travelers will pass through the airport yearly by 2042, necessitating the construction of Terminal Four to help meet demand.

The company plans for Terminal Four to employ an automated system to automatically adjust lighting and air-conditioning based on the number of passengers inside the terminal.

The company has yet to decide whether to relocate some airlines from Terminals One and Two to Terminal Four, or to allow budget airlines to use the new structure.