Low cost carrier terminal

Low cost carrier terminal or LCCT aka budget terminal is a specific type of airport terminal designed with the needs of low cost airlines in mind. Though terminals may have differing charges and costs, as is common in Europe, the concept of an all budget terminal was promoted and pioneered by Tony Fernandes of AirAsia at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2006.

Description


With a stripped down airport terminal, airports can reduce daily operating costs significantly, thereby passing along the savings to budget airlines and ultimately their passengers. It specifically entails cost reductions from normal airports in terms of the physical building, forgoing expensive architectural design for simple boxy warehouse-like design, without the long corridors and moving walkways, low ceilings, in terms of amenities, much fewer choice in terms of restaurants, duty-free, and decoration being mostly airline ads. Baggage handling is much simplified. Ironically, these terminals may also have modern facilities such as free wifi. A German study (Swanson 2007) of costs showed that at KLIA and Changi LCCTs, airlines were charged roughly 2/3 to 3/4 the total cost of landing at the main terminal; for budget sensitive carriers, any competitive advantage can be critical.

A project dubbed KLIA2, billed as the world's largest budget terminal is under construction at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, made to accommodate up to 45 million passengers.

Counterarguments
While the concept of a simple basic terminal in theory would lower costs, in practice, corruption and project bloat can squirrel away any savings. Such is the case of KLIA2.

"When KLIA2 was first proposed MAHB said it would cost MYR2 billion, a figure that was later revised to MYR2.6 billion Then came news that the terminal would cost MYR4 billion, double the original estimate. Now there’s talk that the bill could go as high as MYR5 billion. That makes no sense – the low-cost terminal will now cost much more than KLIA. Yes, I asked for a new terminal but one that has simple facilities. Did it have to cost 20 times our present LCCT?"

- Tony Fernandes, on KLIA2.

Budget terminals also have to consider if they only serve budget airlines or all airlines. In this way, a terminal can essentially "lose its budget identity". In the case of Macau airport, "from an airport perspective, having a separate LCCT is frequently more expensive than having one terminal for all carrier types because of the need to duplicate services and systems including check-in, security and immigration."

List of existing/expanding budget terminals

 * 🇲🇾 MYS Kuala Lumpur International Airport - pioneering airport with all budget terminal, world's largest (up to 45 mln passenger capacity) under construction due to open May 2013. It is now expected to open May 2014, with heavy cost overruns.
 * 🇲🇾 MYS Kota Kinabalu International Airport - not a true LCCT terminal as non-budget carriers use this terminal, but incorporates the concept.
 * SIN Changi International Airport - old budget terminal demolished for new with 7 million passenger capacity.

List of proposed budget terminals

 * 🇯🇵 JPN Narita International Airport
 * 🇹🇼 TWN Taoyuan International Airport
 * 🇵🇭 PHL Clark International Airport
 * Both Bangkok and Jakarta are also urged by airlines to consider such terminals, Chubu (Nagoya) is considering it for 2013
 * Brisbane is considering a LCCT under its master plan.
 * Transportation Secretary of Philippines unveiled a plan for a LCCT at NAIA.
 * Mainland China is actively looking into LCCTs and well as low cost carriers.