Coming To An Airport Near You?
Increasing pressure from the popularity of low-cost carriers (LCC) is forcing airports around the world to construct specially-built terminals to cater to this traffic. They are coping by constructing simpler buildings that pare amenities to the bone. For example, such a facility is characterized by moving arriving and departing passengers within a single floor operation area. Aside from the additional floor, facilities such as air bridges, escalators, elevators, and travellators are thereby eliminated, reducing the building’s cost.
A simpler terminal allows airports to charge airlines and passengers less in user fees, just right for a LCC’s business model, and for a no-frills traveler’s budget.
In southeast Asia, Malaysia and Singapore lead the pack. The Diosdado Macapagal International Airport inside the Clark Special Economic Zone is this country’s de facto LCC terminal.
The Netherlands, however, may have taken this concept a little bit too far. From the Wall Street Journal:
In Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport has also adapted to low-cost carriers. “Pier H,” a long, skinny terminal with seven gates, was built in nine months at a cost of $38 million.
How was it kept so cheap? The terminal’s only bathroom is at the security checkpoint, a 10 to 15 minute walk from some of the gates. Seating is severely limited and there’s no retail in the terminal itself. Lighting is fluorescent and the floors are linoleum tile, with steel side walls and ceiling.
The article continues that such an uncomfortable design was implemented on purpose, to convince waiting passengers to while their time away at Schiphol’s shopping center instead of just waiting at the gate for their flight.
