Last week I was given a very detailed presentation on the new terminal that’s under construction as well as a site visit to see the current progress. There was a lot of information presented but for this post, I rounded up what I thought was the most interesting. So here we go:
– The terminal is shaped similarly to other airports around the world for the same reason all cars have 4 wheels, it’s a shape that works really well for airports. But like all cars have 4 wheels, there is still a big difference between a Ferrari and a Kia and this applies to airports as well. Although airports can be shaped similarly, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll all function the same way.
– Eventhough the terminal is huge, you still won’t have to walk much. The distance from the terminal entrance to the center of the terminal is around 150m. The furthest a passenger has to walk once inside is 600m. That’s one of the advantages of the triangular shape of the terminal, less walking distance for the passengers.
– The original plan of the terminal was to open with a capacity of 13 million passengers a year with an ability to expand that up to 25 million if needed. The plans have changed now and the terminal will now be able to handle 25 million passengers from day 1.
– The terminal will have a level of service rating of “A”. Dubai, for example, has a “C”. The level of service is calculated using a variety of things including the distance between passengers in the terminal, facilities, wayfinding etc.. For an airport of this capaciaty, its generally very difficult to get an “A”.
– The terminal has enough gates to handle 21 Airbus A380s (above) but also has the capacity to handle 51 smaller aircraft all at once (below). Thats possible because the majority of the gates can either take one large plane or two smaller ones without having to make any modifications.
– The terminal will have over 5,000 underground parking spots dedicated just for the passengers. Our current airport in comparison has around 1,500 that is also shared with the airport employees.
– Nothing is off the shelf, everything is being custom designed and made for the terminal. There are some things that have never been done before even for Foster + Partners, so its a learning experience for everyone involved in the project.
– Landside is airport lingo for everything before immigration and security, airside is what they call the area after. There will be no mall located in the landside part of the terminal but the airside will have a retail space larger than Trafalgar Square (pictured above).
– There will be 44 immigration desks and 26 security screening machines just for economy travelers. Premium passengers will have their own immigration and security checks in a different area.
– The footing of the building (the foundation base) is 5m deep. I had no idea if this was a lot or not but I was told by architects and engineers that this is crazy deep, usually the footing is around 1m max. The reason for this is the footing has to support all the arches which support the whole roof and structure of the terminal.
– Speaking of arches, there are 800+ arches being used in the building.
– The airport will have a floor for arrivals and another for departures so the two don’t mix. The departure dropoff and the arrival pickup area outside the airport are 500 meters long each and composed of 4 lanes. So they both have 2KM each of temporary parking.
– The rendering above of the expansion of T2 where the terminal is mirrored is just to show that there is room to expand but the final design of the expansion terminal might look completely different.
– Nobody knows what DGCA will do with the current airport once T2 is up and running.
– The terminal is currently 1% behind schedule but the contractor has a catch-up plan in place.
– Contractually the airport is expected to be completed by September 2022. It might finish earlier but September 2022 is whats in the contract. Once the airport is completed it will be handed over to DGCA and it could then take up to a year for the airport to open and function.
I took random pictures at the site as well as screenshots from the powerpoint presentation. If you’d like to see them then click [Here]
Below is a video presentation I found of the airport as well that features a lot of animated renderings.
If anyone has any questions, let me know in the comments below.
43 replies on “Everything You Need to Know on the New Airport Terminal (T2)”
No words to describe how awesome this will be for Kuwait and all passengers (as long as employees/staff/immigration officers are properly being trained for this major upgrade).
Thanks Mark
“as long as employees/staff/immigration officers are properly being trained for this major upgrade” – THIS is the Key.
Proper and immense training is required to handle passengers, unlike the current situation at the airport.
As long as they don’t hire the same security staff at the Jazeera terminal I’m good. I was telling my friend about it and she told me how she had to tell security staff there that a passenger wasn’t allowed to bring razors onboard. Crazy how unprofessional and untrained those security guys were when I traveled.
LOL! I read your post on it. That is just crazy to have such untrained security staff running an airport, simply dangerous to say the least.
How is this awesome for Kuwait? It’s just a more efficient means of getting everyone to Dubai for the weekend and back before work Sunday morning.
I thinks it’s very good, I hope they take good care of it, I think they might seeing how people and the government are taking good care of the opera house and shaheed Park.. maybe not Abdullah al Salem centre but you never know, I’m just pissed at the question of where were they all these years?
Any increase in the number of runways? I assume that would be a given considering the increase in capacity.
I believe they are currently operating 2 parallel ones.
I think they are working on this right now but its not related to the T2 project. The DGCA are handling the runway expansion while Foster + Partners are handling T2.
You can see a third runway farthest west in this picture, but like Mark said, I doubt F+P have anything to do with building it (yet). There have been several reports/tweets recently about the approval coming in for it, but I honestly don’t see the need for it yet unless they want to have one exclusively for special operations and cargo or as a contingency for any future closures. (Keep in mind that’s a cargo bay west of T1 between T1 and the third runway)
https://www.fosterandpartners.com/media/2633819/img5_1879_fp487495.jpg?width=1920&quality=85
That is a fascinating image. First one I’ve seen with as much detail for the plans beyond the 2 airport buildings.
Perhaps you have an idea what this one particular building is, at coordinates 29.200249, 47.972297
https://goo.gl/maps/VmwjCk373JN2
The building is shown on the left side of the image you linked, near the Meteorological Department.
It appears in satellite images, but is not marked on google maps.
The shape of the building looks similar to the the DGCA logo…
Yes it is the new DGCA building 🙂
Thanks…..good to know 🙂
The architecture looks almost like the Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi.
Yeps, inbetween take-offs and landings, they will allow some shabaab to do donuts on the tarmac.
Serves dual-purpose. To vent some steam and show off, the other is to provide entertainment to passengers in the plane (streamed live).
Is this for real? Or are you joking?
I can’t tell…… Meh!
Will there by an E-Gates?
There was no mention but that’s not because of the airport. E Gate can be installed and set up at our current airport, if we don’t have e gate it’s because our system doesn’t allow it.
Thanks for sharing this Mark, very informative!
Out of curiosity, does anyone have insight into how a country plans for something like this? Why is Kuwait making a massive investment when ridiculous laws are being enacted daily and expats are being pushed out?
Not trying to diss Kuwait here but I am genuinely curious as to what the benefit is.
Two points I consider for my thought process is us coming in low in the friendliest countries or tourism industry categories and the other being that Qatar and Abu Dhabi have huge airports which serve as a Middle East hub.
So how does Kuwait fit into this mix?
+1
Can’t understand the 25m from day one. Where are these 25m. Also the fleet is aging and it would take decades to order and get a new set to compete numbers wise even with any airline out there. Plus the pts about being rated badly in the personnel interaction space and nothing to do than shop and have coffee
It can handle that many passengers not that there will be that many passengers
If you are referring to Kuwait Airways, the current fleet (25 planes) is almost entirely brand new, with another 25 planes on order to be delivered between 2019-2022
Expat law and tourism are not key factors in the development of the new airport (although both valid and important points to consider for the country overall) the reason they are developing this new airport is because the current airport is at overcapacity so its handing more passengers than it can/should and the expansion of t2 is crucial for the country to continue functioning.
The current airport handles 13.7 million passengers, I think the current airport was built to handle 8 million passengers so this is part of the answer as to why they need to build a new airport terminal. The other reason is that the airport by default is going to have an increase of passenger usage whether they are flying into Kuwait or just for transit. Almost all countries that invest in their new airports do it for domestic users in the country itself and for transit passengers. The new airport is going to allow for more flights from local airlines that want to expand and other airlines who want to acquire part of the local marketshare of passengers.
“According to forecasts, passenger traffic is expected to exceed 23 million in 2027.” So in reality T2 is will barely accomdate forecasts of passenger traffic, so they need to build the expansion of T2 to reach 50m passengers to accommodate the increase in traffic.
Hope this helps!
Kuwait just opened aljazeera terminal and are expecting to open T4 by August 2018 wich will accomodate around 4.5m passengers/year.
Thank you, very helpful!
The govt has this huge plan called New Kuwait or Kuwait 2030… basically they want to modernize kuwait and solve many of its infrastructure problems (roads, airports, hospitals, etc)
As for the expat issues, they want to make Kuwait more self sufficient and less reliable on outside workers.
First this project plays a significant rule in economy, commerce and global community for Kuwait.
Secondly and due to the conflicts between Qatar and the gulf countries Kuwait is the hub for the gulf countries.
How about long term parking, any word?
long term parkng is part of the 5,100+ parking spots. they haven’t been split yet. whoever takes over the parking will decide how to split it, they might make it 2500 long term, 2500 short term, or they might make the whole lot short and long term.. its still undecided
I thought the video was unrealistic. At arrival where are the cars parked 6 deep and no one can get to the sidewalk. Where was all the trash blowing across the road as you approach. where were the swarms of porters, where was the bunches of passengers blocking the baggage pick up congested with carts so deep you cant get near the carousel.
This was a fantasy. A dream. and Yes all the unprofessional control people at immigration with 30 counters and only 3 staffed…..
Why are you jumping into conclusions? For gods sake, the damn airport isn’t even open yet! I get that there are a lot of issues happening in Kuwait, especially in the current airport, but the whole point of this development and modernization is to get rid of these issues. So, please, stop being that typical negative kuwaiti citizen (I’m assuming u are) that doesn’t appreciate the government’s efforts to change Kuwait.
Hello Mark,
Thanks for this lovely piece. Currently, you have to undergo two security checks after the check-in. One immediately after the check-in and another at the boarding gate. Please could you confirm, if you happen to know, that this will be avoided in the future. I am not sure what is the need for two level of security check in.
Secondly, in the current terminal, Toilets near the boarding gates are severely short in number. Any information about that? Also, water coolers (there is only one near boarding gate now, I think) will be there?
Thanks again.
You currently have this at our main terminal but not Sheikh Saad Terminal for example. The reason we have this at the main terminal is that the airport was designed where arrival and departure passengers mix. In Sheikh Saad they don’t mix so you only have one check. The new terminal has a separate floor for arrival passengers and another one for departure so you’ll only have one security check before entering airside.
I think toilets and water coolers are basics that don’t have to be mentioned. Obviously there will be both in the current airport.
To confirm Mark’s point, the new Terminal 4 which is built as an interim home for Kuwait Airways will inaugurate tomorrow (operate in August/Sept) and it has only one security checkpoint for the exact same reason.
ah thats why they told me i could come by for a tour after July 4. The airport is officially opening next month on August 8th.
I read Kuwait Airways will get it on July 25 and gradually get it up and running, am I missing something with the dates?
I’m going to be an optimist and say that most airport staff will become motivated to be more professional when they move to this wonderful new terminal.
Work environment has a greater effect on performance than most people realize or care to admit.
At Riyadh airport, every immigration officer has a small touch-pad in front of him for travelers to rate his performance on the spot. Basically 3 emojis: Smile, Neutral, Frown
This could work really well here
After they open T2, the DGCA should strip down the current airport (T1) to its original design by Kenzo Tange, and then convert it to an airport hotel, like the TWA flight center at JFK NY. I really hope someone from the Amiri Diwan reads this and makes it happen.
That’s the best idea yet!
amazing stuff, thank you for sharing.
will there be unique services and facilities in the airport? such as a spa/ a hotel/ an entertainment area/ … etc, like what we’re seeing and experiencing in other new airports?
Hi Mark!
Loved the pictures and information.
Right now i am studying the terminal and drawing it 3D for university but im struggling finding any technical plans/ drawings/ section to work with apart from the ones you submitted. By any chance, do you hace anymore information about the project you haven’t published? if so, i would be extremely grateful if you could send it to me.
Thank you so much!
do u have any of those drawings? would love to take a look at them. thanks