* The new facility has added five new contact gates, 22 bus gates and improved access and services on 12 existing remote aircraft stands
HIA will therefore continue to operate within a single expansive terminal of 725,000 square meters (previously 600,000 sqm), so passengers can “seamlessly” transfer from one area to another.
The newly expanded area will have a brand-new expansive transfer hall- ‘Transfer-C’, which means HIA will now have three transfer halls within the terminal.
According to Hamad International Airport, ‘Transfer C’ will ensure minimum connection time for transfer passengers arriving at the North Plaza of the airport and will deliver “unprecedented” levels of security, customer service and efficiency.
On November 10, Hamad International Airport opened the newly expanded terminal as part of its ‘Phase A’ expansion, which means the state-of-the-art airport will now be able to cater to 58mn passengers annually.
HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani inaugurated HIA’s newly expanded terminal and toured the facility.
He was also briefed on HIA’s capacities in terms of receiving incoming and departing passengers, as well as the modern systems used.
The Central Concourse project is the extended area of the airport terminal, located at the North Plaza of Hamad International Airport. The focal point of the Central Concourse is the Orchard, which consists of an indoor tropical garden, water feature, retail and F&B, under a grid shell roof.
The transfer facility will have some 14 security lanes, a Central Image Processing Room for centralised security inspection and analysis and a transfer hall capacity approximately 5,600 passengers every hour.
New scanner features mean passengers do not require passengers to remove either liquids or larger electronic items from their bags.
Up to six passengers can load their items into trays at the same time, for faster passenger processing.
The new facility incorporates passenger boarding pass scanners prior to screening which will electronically ‘tag’ each passenger’s belongings to boarding card to ensure the belongings are tracked.
Once passengers remove their possessions from the tray, the system scans the tray to ensure no items are left behind.
The system also incorporates a shoe screening capability conducted in only a few seconds without the need for passengers to remove their footwear.
HIA said Orchard is integrated with the existing terminal, so passengers can seamlessly transfer from one area to another. Therefore, the Hamad Airport will continue to operate within a single expansive terminal.
The Orchard is connected to the South Plaza (Lamp Bear Area) of HIA via the passenger train and accessible by passengers.
It takes 90 seconds to connect the North and South plaza stations (and vice versa). The two stations can also be accessed by travellators, buggies etc.
Extensive flora, include more than 300 trees and 25,000 plants and shrubs sourced from sustainable forests from around the world.
The designers have developed a column free, long span 85m grid shell roof with performance glass to control and filter the light required to maintain a rainforest with mature trees.
The newly expanded terminal houses HIA’s second airport hotel - ‘Oryx Garden’ that will come in handy for passengers during their stopover flights in Doha.
