UNIT 1

AIRPORT TERMINAL
By AKSHATHA S
AIRPORT
Airport, also called air terminal, aerodrome, or airfield, site and
installation for the takeoff and landing of aircraft. An airport usually
has paved runways and maintenance facilities and serves as a terminal
for passengers and cargo.
Airport Components
Airspace : Area for aircraft manoeuvre (after takeoff, before landin
Airfield : Aerodromes : Area for aircraft take-off & landing (equip
with required installations & equipments, NavAids, Lighting)
Landside : Area to accommodate the ground-based vehicles, passe
& cargo movements.
Airport Ground Access Plans: Area to accommodate ground based
vehicles to and from the near city area & between the various build
around the airport.
Airport Terminal
Terminal Building/ Terminal: A building to facilitate the passengers &
baggage movements from the landside to the aircraft on airside.
(Or)An airport terminal is a building within an airport where passengers
go to depart on a flight (embark), or the building at which they arrive
upon landing (disembark).
Function of Terminal Building
To facilitate a change of transfer mode (ex: from train to plane, from car
to plane, etc.).
To process passengers (ticket check, customs clearance, immigration
control)
To provide various facilities for passenger (shopping, toilets, eating,
meeting & greeting, business & conference).
To organize & group passengers before journey by plane.
The historical development of airport terminals.
First airport terminal areas facilities evolved in early 1920s
Earliest passenger processing strategies evolved from railway.
Tickets and boarding passes were issued for passengers (Sometimes
passengers were weighed so that A/C did not exceed its max T/O
weight)
Facilities required for performing basic ticketing, weighing, A/C
boarding were incorporated into one-room facilities, similar to
facilities that served railroads.
Unit Terminal Concept/ Simple unit terminal
Unit Terminal Concept “Centralized facilities” were the earliest airport
terminals.
“Centralized” means that all passenger processing facilities at the airport
are housed in one building. In addition, the airport administrative offices
and even ATC facilities are located within the unit terminal building.
Combined Unit Terminal
In smaller communities, two or more airlines
would share a common building, slightly larger
than a simple unit terminal, but have separate
passenger and baggage processing facilities.
This configuration became known as the
combined unit terminal
Multiple-unit Terminal Concept
In larger metropolitan areas,
separate buildings were
constructed for each airline,
each building behaving as its
own unit terminal. This
terminal area configuration
became known as the
multiple-unit terminal concept
Linear Terminal Concept
Linear Terminal Concept
As airports expanded to meet the growing needs of the public, as well as the
growing wingspans of aircraft, simple-unit terminals expanded outward in a
rectangular or linear manner, with the goal of maintaining short distances
between the vehicle curb and aircraft parking that existed with unit terminals.
In some instances airports were extended in a curvilinear fashion, allowing even
more aircraft to park "nose-in" to the terminal building while maintaining short
walking distances from the airport entrance to the aircraft gate.
Disadvantages of linear terminals
One of the main disadvantages of linear terminals becomes evident as
the length of the terminal building increases. Walking distances between
facilities, particularly distantly separated gates, become excessive for the
passenger whose itinerary requires a change in aircraft at the airport.
Pier Finger Terminal Concept
The pier finger terminal concept evolved
in the 1950s when gate concourses were
added to simple unit terminal buildings.
Concourses, known as piers or fingers,
offered the opportunity to maximize the
number of aircraft parking spaces with
less infrastructure.
The pier finger terminal is the first of
what are known as decentralized facilities,
with some of the required processing
performed in common-use main terminal
areas, and other processes performed in
and around individual concourses.
Pier Finger Terminal Concept
Disadvantages
Distances between gates and other facilities became not only excessive
Passenger crowding in these areas
Reduction of apron space for A/C parking and movement
Tends to put constraints on the mobility of A/C, particularly A/C parked
closer to the main terminal building
PIER SATELLITE TERMINALS
Pier Satellite terminals formed as concourses extended from main-unit terminal buildings with
aircraft parked at the end of the concourse around a round atrium or satellite area.
Satellite gates are usually served by a common passenger holding area.
Remote Satellite Terminals
The remote satellite concept took advantage of the ability to create either
underground corridors or Automated Passenger Movement Systems (APMs) to
connect main terminal buildings with concourses.
The main advantage of the remote satellite concept is that one or more satellite
facilities may be constructed and expanded when necessary while providing
sufficient space for aircraft taxi operations between the main terminal building
and satellites.
The mobile lounge or transporter concept
Concept was introduced in 1962
In mobile lounge or transporter concept, aircraft are parked at remote parking
locations away from the main-unit terminal building.
To travel between aircraft and the terminal building, passengers would board
transporters, known as mobile lounges, that would roam the airfield among
ground vehicles and taxiing aircraft.
HYBRID TERMINAL GEOMATRIES
In 1978 with air liner
deregulation, airport
management has had to expand
and modify terminal areas to
accommodate almost constantly
changing environments. As a
result, many airport terminal
geometries expanded in an ad
hoc manner, leading to hybrid
terminal geometries
incorporating features of two or
more of the basic
configurations.
AIRSIDE-LANDSIDE CONCEPT
Most significant terminal area concept
emerged involved more physical
separation between facilities that handle
passengers and ground vehicles and those
that deal primarily with A/C handling
Airside-landside concept relies heavily
on automated pedestrian movement
systems to quickly and efficiently shuttle
passengers to and from two separate
facilities
Modern day Terminals
No single airport terminal configuration is best for all airports
A/P terminal planner are to anticipate conditions up to 10 years in the
future in an environment that seems to change everyday
Several A/P terminals today appear more of a shopping malls than
passenger processing facilities, and few A/Ps terminals are equipped
with hotels and conference centres.
These facilities have actually encouraged visitors to use the facilities at
the A/P without ever intending to board an A/P
The size and shape of airport terminal configurations has both an
uncertain yet exciting future.
The basic function of the airport terminal area, that of efficiently linking
passengers and cargo to the airside and landside components of the civil
aviation system, should always be understood by airport managers and
planners alike.