An airport terminal is a main building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an aircraft.
The buildings that provide access to the airplanes (via gates) are typically called concourses. However, the terms "terminal" and "concourse" are sometimes used interchangeably, depending on the configuration of the airport. Smaller airports have one terminal while larger airports have several terminals and/or concourses. At small airports, a single terminal building typically serves all of the functions of a terminal and a concourse. Larger airports might have either one terminal that is connected to multiple concourses or multiple almost independent unit terminals.
By the end of the 20th century airport terminals became symbols of progress and trade, showcasing the aspirations of nations constructing them. The buildings are also characterized by a very rapid pace of redevelopment, much higher than that for structures supporting other modes of transportation, eroding the boundary between the permanent and temporary construction.
Unit terminals An airport might have multiple separate "unit terminals", in order, for example to separate the international travel from the domestic one, or provide the separate airlines with the ability to offer their own terminals. The unit terminals might use similar design (Dallas-Fort Worth Airport) or be completely different (Pearson International Airport). Use of multiple terminals typically requires automatic people movers.
Functions Terminals perform three main functions: change of mode of transportation: the flights almost inevitably involve some land travel, so the terminal should facilitate the passengers moving along the prescribed routes and thus contains so called passenger circulation areas; processing of the passengers and their luggage that includes ticketing / checking-in of passengers, separating the luggage and returning it back to the passengers, security checks of both passengers and luggage. These functions are performed in the passenger processing spaces; grouping/ungrouping of the passengers. The passengers do not arrive at the terminal pre-sorted in batches for the flights and have to be grouped to board a plane. Upon arrival, a reverse process occurs, so the terminal needs the passenger holding place.
Landside and airside
Just like entire airports, the terminals are divided into landside and airside zones. Typically passengers and staff must be checked by airport security, and/or customs/border control before being permitted to enter the airside zone. Conversely, passengers arriving from an international flight must pass through border control and customs to access the landside area.
The landside-airside boundary became the defining element of the terminal architecture. The functions that are performed on the landside, like ticketing and check-in, are relatively stable, while the airside is subject to rapid technological and operational changes. Victor Marquez suggests that the boundary is not really an integral part of the airport functions, but a "socio-technical construct" that has gradually shaped the thinking of architects and planners.
Architectural styles The passenger terminal is the main opportunity within the airport for architects to express themselves and a key element of the airport design. Brian Edwards compares the architectural role of the terminal in the airport to the one of a mall within a small town.
Historically, airports were built in a variety of architectural styles, with the selection depending on the country: in the US, Art Deco was used for the Kansas's Fairfax Airport (1929, Charles A. Smith, Moderne for Washington Airport (1930, Holden, Scott and Hutchinson), Neocolonial for the first St. Louis airport (1931) and the Floyd Bennett Field (1931); Adobe style for Albuquerque Airport (1936–1939, Ernest Blumenthal), Spanish-pueblo style for the San Francisco Airport (1937, H. G. Chipier), International Modern for Chicago Airport, Moderne/Art Deco combination for the Miami Airport and LaGuardia (Delano and Aldrich); South America was following the US pattern, with more Modern in the mix; Europe preferred all stripes of Modernism, from Brick Expressionism (Madrid–Barajas Airport, 1929–1931, Luis Gutiérrez Soto) to edgy French Modernism and Czech version of functionalism (Prague Airport, 1933–1937, ) to softer Scandinavian functionalism (Kastrup Airport, 1936–1938, Vilhelm Lauritzen). Few early terminals used Neoclassical style of the Edwardian era, a terminal in the old Basra Airport was built to resemble a palace (1937–1938, Wilson and Mason).
The concrete boxes of terminals built in the 1960s and 1970s generally gave way to glass boxes in the 1990s and 2000s, with the best terminals making a vague stab at incorporating ideas of "light" and "air"'. However, some, such as Baghdad International Airport and Denver International Airport, are monumental in stature, while others are considered architectural masterpieces, such as Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle Airport, near Paris, the main terminal at Washington Dulles in Virginia, or the TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport. A few are designed to reflect the culture of a particular area, some examples being the terminal at Albuquerque International Sunport in New Mexico, which is designed in the Pueblo Revival style popularized by architect John Gaw Meem, as well as the terminal at Bahías de Huatulco International Airport in Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico, which features some palapas that are interconnected to form the airport terminal."
History The first airfields, built in the early 20th century, did not have passengers and thus did not need the terminals. Large facilities were built, however, to house the fragile and inventive airships of the time protecting them from elements and industrial spies. Still, some of the concept architectural designs resembled the modern terminal buildings: Erich Mendelsohn’s sketch (1914) contained a large building with the attached ancillaries for planes (the central building was intended not for the passengers, but for a dirigible). The predecessors of the modern terminals were the structures erected for the air shows of the Edwardian era (for example, the Reims Air Meet in 1909). These buildings usually were L-shaped, with one wing dedicated to the planes and flight personnel, and the other intended for the spectators, with a grandstand and restaurants in an arrangement similar to the one used for the racetracks. The shows also featured occasional passenger flights. The other template of a terminal was provided by the first airline, the German DELAG that featured sheds for Zeppelins combined with passenger spaces close to the centers of cities, like the railroad stations.
The first European passenger airports of the interwar period in the major transportation nodes (London, Paris, Berlin) were converted military airfields (London Terminal Aerodrome, Croydon Aerodrome, Great West Aerodrome, Le Bourget, Tempelhof) and lacked the spaces for the actual passengers. US, on the other hand, lacked the war infrastructure and had to build the airports from scratch, mostly following the "hangar-depot" building type where, staff, passengers, and airplanes were all accommodated inside a single large building, like the one at the Ford Dearborn Airport (1925–1926).
Dedicated passenger buildings started to appear. In Europe, Le Bourget got a new buildings in classical style arranged in very non-airport-like manner around a central garden in the early 1920s. The "air station" of Königsberg Devau (1922) was probably the first design resembling the modern ones: Hanns Hopp, a German architect, placed a passenger building flanked by hangars into the corner of an airfield. This design influenced the Tempelhof, arguably the seminal design in the history or airports: the original Modernist terminal by Paul and Klaus Englers of 1926-1929 was placed into the center of the field, thus defied the need for expansion, and had to be replaced by the new building in the late 1930s (architect Ernst Sagebiel). Hounslow (now Heathrow airport) was processing the passengers through a reused aircraft hangar, and a new classical terminal was built in Croydon in 1928. In the US, by 1931 the first airport in Chicago (now Midway Airport) had its own Art Deco terminal building.
Sagebiel's Tempelhof had an appearance of a major railway terminus and housed, like many other European airports, great restaurants. The design survived for more than 60 years, highly unusual for an airport due to Sagebiel being prescient and oversizing the building beyond the scope of the original needs.
The original Le Bourget design was corrected by in 1936–1937, with the new Modernist single-terminal layout following ideas of not-yet-unfinished Tempelhof (but without covered access to the planes) and Croydon.
New York's LaGuardia Airport (Delano and Aldrich, 1939) contained many features common in the modern designs: two-level layout for separation between departing and arriving passengers, "spine" concourse extending to the both sides of the building, "dispatcher booths" as precursors to the airport gates.
After Second World War
Some airlines checked in their passengers at downtown terminals, and had their own transportation facilities to the airfield. For example, Air France checked in passengers at the Invalides Air Terminal (Aérogare des Invalides) from 1946 to 1961, when all passengers started checking in at the airport. The Air Terminal continued in service as the boarding point for airline buses until 2016.
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport's innovative design pioneered concepts such as direct highway access to the airport, concourses, and jetbridges; these designs are now seen at most airports worldwide.
When London Stansted Airport's new terminal opened in 1991, it marked a shift in airport terminal design since Norman Foster placed the baggage handling system in the basement in order to create a vast open interior space.Menno Hubregtse, Wayfinding, Consumption, and Air Terminal Design (London: Routledge, 2020), 36-38. Airport architects have followed this model since unobstructed sightlines aid with passenger orientation. In some cases, architects design the terminal's ceiling and flooring with cues that suggest the required directional flow.Menno Hubregtse, Wayfinding, Consumption, and Air Terminal Design (London: Routledge, 2020), 58-61. For instance, at Toronto Pearson's Terminal 1 Moshe Safdie included skylights for wayfinding purposes.
Layouts
Early airport terminals opened directly onto the tarmac: passengers would simply walk to their aircraft, a so-called "open apron" layout. This simple design is still common among smaller airports.
Linear For larger airports, like Kansas City International Airport, Munich Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport, allowing many passenger to walk across tarmac becomes unfeasible, so the terminals switch to the "linear" layout, where the planes are located next to an elongated building and passengers use jet bridges to walk on board. The design places limit on the number of gates, as the walkability requirement dictates the total length of the building (including the "spine" concourses) to be less than mile.
Semicircular Some airports use a linear structure bent into a semicircular shape, with aircraft parked on the convex side and cars on the other. This design still requires long walks for connecting passengers, but greatly reduces travel times between check-in and the aircraft.
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