Page 13 - AAA MAY-JUNE 2012 Online Magazine

FEATURE INFRASTRUCTURE

Across the AsiA-PAcific region, terminal to enable airport capacity to world wars), the plans were put together,
multibillion-dollar new facilities and reach 65 million passengers a year, and according to some commentators, “as
expensive airport upgrades are struggling south Korea plans to spend Us$3.7 billion best the builders could.” Many were
to keep pace with passenger demands. on a second terminal plus expanded developed from sites that boasted just
china is planning to spend Us$58 billion cargo facilities at incheon international one runway, with a single terminal most
on airport infrastructure, including a Airport,” he pointed out. incheon plans to often accessed by foot from the tarmac.
second major airport in Beijing. india, be able to handle 100 million passengers they were predominantly government-
despite being squeezed by oil prices, and seven million tonnes of cargo a year run and had no security whatsoever. it was
says it expects to spend at least Us$30 by 2020, and closer to Lim’s home base like boarding a bus – you had a ticket, you
billion on new airports and upgrades of ,Kuala Lumpur international Airport is showed up and took your seat. As air travel
existing facilities over the next 15 years. adding a Us$675 million low-cost carrier became more popular, if not cheaper,
the Airports council international (Aci) terminal with a proposed capacity of 45 airports saw they needed to expand to
has forecast that global passenger million passengers a year. cater for extra passenger numbers, with
traffic will double to more than 10 billion these figure show that expansion is ever-larger capacity aircraft bringing
passengers by the year 2029. everywhere – but, planners ask, are we bigger batches of passengers in at any
According to Dr. Michael Lim, Director looking at the horse, or the carts? should time. in some cases, cities designed and
of the singapore Aviation Academy, airports be talking about passengers, built completely new airports.
singapore changi’s terminal 1 upgrade ease of usage, or aircraft movements? Many of the new designs were the
and the new terminal 4 are needed to cope Are they spending their money on the result of local constraints like land
with expected increased demand, with 42 right infrastructure? But first, some availability, terrain, and proximity to other
million passengers in 2010 setting a new background on airport history. developments. As a result the number
record for the airport – and indicating of designs and types were many; there
yet more growth. other regional airports As best they could were different layouts with almost every
see the same trend, and are acting When the first major commercial airports new airport built. so there were airports
accordingly, asserted Lim. “thailand will were laid out in the ‘60s (prior to that, with multiple runways, radial terminal
see a Us$5.3 billion expansion of their most airports were hangovers from layouts, parallel runways, cross runways,
international airport and a new domestic military sites left after the previous finger-style terminal layouts, runways
right next to housing zones – you name
it, it was built. innovative terminal design
such as multi-plane parking at the same
circular terminal (not at fingers) were
used. Most passengers at the time were
making point-to-point journeys, so less
consideration was paid to transfers to
different terminals and for passenger
movement to alternative destinations.
As for environmental issues, the only
consideration back then was noise
– locals complained, and were given
double-glazing to keep things quiet.
the problem then arose that as
passengers started using airports as
transfer points, not just arrival points,
they found they had to walk relatively
large distances to the next gate they
were going to – and in some cases clear
customs, with associated security – before
they could board the next plane. Airports
like charles de gaulle in Paris were
built as magnificent and adventurous
constructions, but were (and still are)
really hard for passengers to navigate
around in. And many airports in the Us,
like seattle, built two runways close
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