Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) has been working with airlines to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint and build a sustainable third terminal at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, TIAC president and chief executive officer Fan Hsiao-lun (范孝倫) said yesterday.
“Pursuing sustainability is not an extra workload, but an attitude,” Fan said in a speech at the sixth Taiwan Future international summit held by Business Today in Taipei.
Fan and other guests were invited to share their experience of using innovative technologies to pursue sustainability in the aviation industry.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
The airport relies on more than 35,000 employees from 240 public units and private businesses, such as customs and immigration agencies, airlines, duty-free shops and equipment manufacturers, he said.
The sustainability of the airport requires close cooperation among these parties, he added.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and the Airports Council International (ACI) have issued guidelines and taken measures to promote the sustainable development of the industry, he said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The ACI launched its Airport Carbon Accreditation in 2009, assessing the efforts of airports to manage and reduce carbon emissions through six levels of certification: mapping, reduction, optimization, neutrality, transformation and transition.
The levels indicate the stage of an airport on its journey toward comprehensive carbon management, the Web site of the accreditation program says.
Taoyuan airport is at Level 3 optimization, and “is continuing to work on it,” Fan said.
The ACI started the Green Airports Recognition program in 2017 to recognize airports’ outstanding accomplishments in environmental projects by presenting awards to airports that perform the best in the theme set each year, he said.
Taoyuan airport was awarded Gold recognition last year, when “carbon management” was the theme, among airports serving 15 million to 50 million passengers per year.
By switching to highly efficient pumps and LED lighting, the airport reduced carbon emissions by about 4,000 tonnes per year, Fan said.
Installing preconditioned air and fixed electrical ground power on air bridges helps airlines reduce 11,491 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, he added.
The airport is still replacing old equipment with new air-conditioners, cooling towers and escalators with an energy-saving mode, as well as replacing gasoline vehicles with electric vehicles to further reduce carbon emissions, he said.
The construction of the third terminal, which began in 2015 and is scheduled for completion in 2026, is in full swing, he said, calling it “a terminal of a new era.”
The design of Terminal 3 incorporates advanced technologies, such as smart lighting control systems, as well as sound-proof and heat-proof materials, to make it energy efficient and sustainable, he said.
The airport would continue to explore the applications of new technologies in its operation, such as sustainable aviation fuels and hydrogen energy, he said.
EVA Airways Corp chief executive vice president Ho Ching-sheng (何慶生) and China Airlines senior vice president Peng Pao-chu (彭寶珠) said that their companies are committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, and are deliberating the use of sustainable aviation fuels.
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