Sustainable development and the use of smart technology were the focus of this year’s Taoyuan Airport Forum in Taipei yesterday.
The forum, which was held by Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC), was suspended for three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, TIAC chairman Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) said.
“We are glad to have invited airport experts to discuss the development of the civil aviation industry. In recent years, the world has seen a rapid change in the aviation industry, and the fast evolution of technology, green energy development and sustainability. We should jointly face these issues through collaboration,” Yang said.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
“TIAC has integrated the UN Sustainable Development Goals into our operational strategies. We have set a goal of transforming our business models using smart technology and by running green operations,” he said.
The airport operator aims to make Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport a smart airport, using the Internet, artificial intelligence and big data to create a more integrated and efficient operation center, which, in turn, would increase passengers’ overall satisfaction rate, he said.
“To run a green operation, we continue to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, enforce measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate the use of sustainable aviation fuel and other green energy,” Yang said.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
Meanwhile, 6.71 million passengers accessed Taoyuan airport this summer, surpassing its previous goal of 6.5 million, he said, adding that passengers arriving from North America and Northeast Asia had exceeded the number recorded in 2019.
“We have estimated that the number of passengers accessing the airport this year would return to at least 70 percent of the 2019 level,” he said.
“Taoyuan airport is a hub for the Asia-Pacific region and is an important gateway to the world. We need the wisdom of all parties to use technology to reach zero carbon emissions. This is not only the key to economic development and industrial upgrades, but also plays a key role in building a sustainable environment,” Yang said.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that the government spent NT$5.2 billion (US$160.9 million) during the pandemic to revamp Taoyuan airport’ north and south runways and upgrade nearly two dozen facilities, which could not be done before the pandemic in an airport that operates 24 hours a day.
The airport’s third terminal, as well as the north and south concourses, would all be completed by 2026, while the third runway would be completed by 2030, Wang said.
After these key facilities are built, the number of passengers accessing the Taoyuan airport would expand dramatically from 37 million per year to 82 million per year, Wang said.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
The number of aircraft departing and landing on runways would increase from 50 per hour to 80 to 90 per hour, he said.
“Sustainable development and the use of smart technology are development trends of airports around the world. We hope to gain some better suggestions from the forum this year,” Wang said.
Airports Council International Asia-Pacific and Middle East director-general Stefano Baronci said that the success of an airport cannot be measured only by the efficiency of its operations, but rather by the smiles it produces.
As nearly 54 percent of the workers in the global aviation industry work at airports, this has certainly become a human effort, he said.
Several major factors have been identified as anxiety triggers for passengers, including delays and cancelations of flights, long waiting lines and congestion at airports, mishandled baggage, and border procedures, Baronci said.
These problems can be addressed using ground handling service automation, artificial intelligence, facial recognition, virtual queuing, digital tags and robotics for terminal operations, he said.
Baronci also affirmed Taoyuan airport’s construction of the third terminal in response to a potential increase in passengers.
The airport would risk having severe congestion and compromising the quality of airport service if it were not built, Baronci said.
TIAC vice president Tony Yu (余崇立) said in a panel discussion about digital strategies for Taoyuan airport’s transformation that the company began building the airport digital integration platform in 2021, which can integrate information from all departments in the airport and automatically generate more than 300 tables and charts.
The system would forecast the estimated waiting time at security inspections and check-in counters after artificial intelligence is incorporated into it this year, Yu said.
(Taoyuan International Airport special report)
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