Airport Terminals: Design and Function
The terminal is the building that serves as a link between air and land transportation. It includes passenger treatment systems, baggage handling facilities for airlines, and service and shopping areas.
An airport can have one or many terminals and concourses, depending on the size of the airport, but they all serve the same functions. Inside the terminal building, passengers can buy tickets, transfer luggage, and go through security and immigration.
Terminal Types
Finger Pier Terminal
(Examples: Large International Airports like AMS, BKK, MIA – Level 1 at BCN T1)
- A pier design uses a small, narrow building with aircraft parked on both sides. One end connects to a ticketing and baggage claim area.
- Piers offer high aircraft capacity and simplicity of design, but often result in a long distance from the check-in counter to the gate.
Satellite Terminal
(First used at LGT/CDG)
- Formed by one or more independent buildings, in a circular or polygonal shape, so that airplanes can be parked around its entire perimeter. They are usually linked to the main building with access corridors.
- Found in airports with the highest volume of traffic.
- Satellite terminals are the best solution to allow quick boarding and disembarkation of passengers.
Linear Terminal
(Examples: MUC, MAD T2A/B/C, BCN)
- Building in an elongated or curved rectangle from which the aircraft are accessed, parked in line in front of the terminal through various gates that lead directly to the platform.
Hub Airports
(Examples: AMS for KLM, CDG for Air France, FRA for Lufthansa)
- Airport that concentrates traffic and redistributes it to other destinations. This prevents a large number of direct connections that do not have enough demand to maintain those routes.
- They serve as transfer (or stopover) points to get passengers to their final destination.
- A hub airport is a large-capacity airport with a vast system of connections that reduces the number of routes that link the airports to each other. It consists of concentrating air traffic in certain high-capacity airports (hubs) that are responsible for linking airports of lower capacity or lesser importance (spokes).
- In other words, a hub airport is a distribution center from which large airlines distribute their traffic to the rest of the airports.
ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization
The Convention on International Civil Aviation (“Chicago Convention”) was signed in 1944 by 54 nations. This agreement was established as a means to promote cooperation and contribute “to preserve the understanding among nations and peoples of the world” after World War II.
This agreement established the basic principles that make international air transport possible, such as the main rules of airspace, aircraft registration and safety, and the rights of the signatories in relation to air travel.
It also gave rise to the creation of the specialized agency that has been responsible for its supervision since then: the International Civil Aviation Organization.
It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.