CHENNAI: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is planning a fifth terminal, with capacity for 20 million passengers per annum (MMPA), at the Chennai International Airport.
The new terminal is to be built in the “V” space between Chennai’s two runways, according to an airport spokesperson.
“The additional terminal will solve the city side approach congestion as well as maximise the handling capacity within the available land parcel.
Chennai will become one of the largest airports operating with such a small land parcel, optimally utilising the land area,” he added.
The existing cargo terminal on GST Road would instead continue to function as a warehouse for passenger-aircraft belly cargo.
CHENNAI: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is planning a fifth terminal, with capacity for 20 million passengers per annum (MMPA), at the Chennai International Airport. This is expected to take the airport’s combined handling capacity to 55 MMPA, after Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay scrapped the long-mooted Parandur airport project.
The new terminal is to be built in the “V” space between Chennai’s two runways, according to an airport spokesperson. “The additional terminal will solve the city side approach congestion as well as maximise the handling capacity within the available land parcel. Chennai will become one of the largest airports operating with such a small land parcel, optimally utilising the land area,” he added.
According to the official, the project remains at an early stage: no technical or traffic studies have been commissioned, and only a concept has been presented so far. AAI has yet to determine how passengers would move between the existing terminal and the new one across the runway, though automated people-movers are under consideration.
Giving out the contours of the project, a senior AAI official said the plan does envisage 10 rapid-exit taxiways and widening of the perimeter road. He said a parallel, rear-side cargo hub remains at an earlier stage still, with capacity in tonnes per annum not yet planned. The existing cargo terminal on GST Road would instead continue to function as a warehouse for passenger-aircraft belly cargo.
