Airport should improve planning during changes

The remodeling of Terminal 1 of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where the vast majority of visitors enter and exit the country, is long overdue and desperately needed.

But while plans to re-craft the inside and outside of the crumbling old airport structure are indeed grand, it seems as though many of the accompanying details haven't been planned well.

While the domestic media can be prone to exaggeration, pundits have already issued warnings of a “dark age of travel” at Terminal 1 that supposedly will last several months until the renovation work is complete.

One of the biggest points of confusion has to do with Terminal 1's popular parking lot, which will be closed off at the beginning of August until late June of next year.

Even before the closure of the parking lot, roads around Terminal 1 were like a maze, with haphazard signs and police officers armed with noisy whistles directing traffic to and fro.

Many news reports about the closure failed to inform the public that drivers may still park their cars in the large parking lot in front of Terminal 2, where shuttle bus services will be increased to ferry passengers back to Terminal 1.

The reports also failed to mention that while overnight parking at Terminal 1 was discounted, at just NT$100 a night, parking remains full price at Terminal 2.

This will surely result in many angry and surprised drivers, as well as passengers turning up late for their flights after discovering they should have parked in one of the cheaper private lots along the airport's outer boundaries.

There have also been numerous reports suggesting that some flights that ordinarily depart from Terminal 1 will have to switch to Terminal 2 until the renovations are complete.

None of the reports mentioned which of the flights will be moved, or whether a special website or telephone hotline was set up to inform the public about schedule changes before passengers start showing up at the wrong terminals for their flights.

Airports are supposed to be rigorously managed and something like this should have been planned well in advance.

But like many things in Taiwan, the “accompanying details” have been ignored until the last minute.

Travelers need to have one central location, such as an official airport website or a telephone hotline, informing them what to expect when arriving and departing from Terminal 1 over the coming months.

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