We've got mobile check-in and mobile boarding passes – now get ready for the mobile terminal!
Geneva International Airport has unveilled the world's first 'mobile passenger terminal' - although if the name makes you think of a terminal on wheels, think again.
This is more of a temporary structure which can be erected to cope with high levels passenger traffic that would otherwise overload an airport's conventional terminals. Some obvious examples are natural disasters or extreme weather conditions – which we've seen plenty of in the past year, from European volcanic ash and wintery snow to the US 'snowpocalypse' and our own rains, floods and cyclones.
However, a surge of passengers from major sporting events is another instance where the pop-up terminal can take the pressure off the airport.
Geneva intends to use the facility throughout winter and also as a temporary terminal during planned expansion work which will see regular terminals closed for short periods.
And while we'll be the first to admit that the finished product (below) doesn't look anywhere near as pretty as the artists' conceptual diagrams, it's got to be better than queuing for hours on end.
Designed by Austrian company TMT Management, the terminal contains self-service check-in desks in the shape of computers sitting atop roadie-like crates (below).
Additional arrival and departure modules can be bolted on to expand the terminal's capacity and enhance its capabilities, taking it from a mere check-in and waiting area to an edge of tarmac facility to provide passenger processing much closer to the aircraft.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
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