Taoyuan International Airport

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport () is the main international airport serving Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, as well as the northern region. Located in Dayuan, Taoyuan, approximately west of Taipei, the airport is the busiest and largest in Taiwan. In 2016, it was ranked the best airport for its size in the Asia-Pacific region by Airports Council International.

The airport opened for commercial operations in 1979 as Chiang Kai-shek International Airport () and was renamed in 2006. It is the main international hub for China Airlines, EVA Air and Starlux Airlines. It is also a hub of Mandarin Airlines, Uni Air and Tigerair Taiwan.

History

By the 1970s, the original airport in Taipei City — Taipei Songshan Airport — had become overcrowded and could not be expanded due to space limitations. Thus, a new airport was planned to alleviate congestion. The new airport opened (with Terminal 1) on 26 February 1979,

The airport has announced construction plans for a third terminal. In October 2015, the design of British firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, founded by Pritzker Architecture Prize-laureate Richard Rogers, was chosen for the Terminal 3. Over US$2.3 billion was to be spent on the project, among the most costly construction projects in modern Taiwanese history. The terminal is expected to be opened in 2026 and accommodate 45 million passengers per year, boosting the yearly capacity of the airport to 86 million passengers.

Formerly known as Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, it was renamed on 6 September 2006 to its current name.

The airport, originally planned as Taoyuan International Airport, bore the name of late President Chiang Kai-shek until 2006. In Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek is associated with the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang and its many years of one-party authoritarian rule. News organizations and local residents sometimes combined the two commonly used names as "Taoyuan Chung-Cheng Airport".

The Executive Yuan of then-President Chen Shui-bian's administration officially approved the name Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for the hub on 6 September 2006. The opposition Kuomintang, which together with its political allies held a one-vote majority in the Legislative Yuan, decried the change and proposed "Taiwan Taoyuan Chiang Kai-shek International Airport" instead. The disagreement, like those affecting the names of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and other landmarks in Taiwan, stands as another manifestation of the Taiwan localization efforts by pan-Green officials and resistance against it by Pan-Blue Coalition.

Terminals

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport currently has two terminals, which are connected by two short people movers. The third terminal is under construction, while the fourth terminal is planned, however plans may be halted. The Taoyuan Airport MRT links the terminals together underground, and provides transportation to Taipei City.

Terminal 1

thumb|left|Aerial view of Terminal 1

thumb|left|Renovated Terminal 1 arrival hall

thumb|Terminal 1 gate area

Terminal 1 is the original passenger terminal of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. The building was designed by Chinese-born, Taiwanese-American structural engineer Tung-Yen Lin and influenced by Eero Saarinen's Dulles International Airport Main Terminal. The five-storey, terminal, along with the airport, opened in 1979 to relieve the overcrowded Taipei Songshan Airport. All international flights were moved to the airport following the completion of this terminal. Terminal 1 featured 22 gates. A row of 11 gates are located on the north end of the airfield facing the north runway and another row of 11 gates are located on the south end airfield facing the south runway. The two concourses that contained the airplane gates are linked together by a main building that contained the check-in areas, baggage claim, passport immigration areas, and security checkpoint areas. Together, they form a giant "H". All gates are equipped with jetways. Gates located at the end of the concourses have one jetway and also reducing people and gates not located at the end of the concourses have two jetways. The terminal was originally white in color when it first opened. As the years gradually passed, the façade and color became more tan and yellow colored due to age, while also helped by the air pollution in Taipei.

After the completion of Terminal 2, some gates from Terminal 1 were removed to make space for Terminal 2. Currently, Terminal 1 has 18 gates. Alphabetical letters were introduced when Terminal 2 was completed. The North Concourse is now Concourse A, and the South Concourse is now Concourse B. Before Terminal 2, gates were numbered from 1 to 22. China Airlines uses Concourse A for the majority of its flights in Terminal 1, while the third largest carrier of the airport, Cathay Pacific, operates most of its flights at Concourse B.

In 2012, the renovation project of the terminal, designed by Japanese architect Norihiko Dan, was completed, doubling the floor area, expanding check-in counters, increasing shopping areas and expanding car-parking facilities. Part of the project was the complete redesigning of both the exterior and interior of the terminal. The capacity of Terminal 1 is 15 million passengers per year. This renovation received the 2014 Taiwan Architecture Award from the Taiwan Architects Association.

Terminal 2

thumb|Terminal 2 departure hall

thumb|Terminal 2 arrival hall

thumb|Terminal 2 gate area

Terminal 2 opened in 2000 to reduce heavy congestion in the aging Terminal 1. Only the South Concourse had been completed by the time the terminal opened. The South Concourse alone has 10 gates, each with 2 jetways and their own security checkpoints. The North Concourse opened later in 2005, bringing the total number of gates for Terminal 2 to 20 gates; the security checkpoints were moved to a central location in front of the passport control. The 318,000-m<sup>2</sup> facility is capable of handling 17 million passengers per year.

Terminal 4 (plans halted)

Originally part of the expansion project was a new Terminal 4. However, due to the vast amount of construction, the Ministry of Transportation ordered the airport company to halt the project in order to minimize traveller inconvenience.

thumb|Airport Moving Walkway photos at Taoyuan airport

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter services to and from Taoyuan International Airport: