A running track inside an airport!

The track at Terminal 3 at Tokyo’s Narita Airport

How about stepping of an airplane, racing along a running track in an airport to pick up luggage from the conveyor belt? Or challenging a fellow traveller to a sprint on a running track to kill time when you have a delayed flight?

What about a little jog for a quick warm-up after a long tiring flight, or catching up with some running practice missed due to busy schedule? An airport in Tokyo is ready to blend such fun to the travelling experience of the passengers.

Tokyo's Narita International Airport has built a new Terminal 3, with walkways built like indoor running tracks—an appropriate precursor to the 2020 Olympic Games, which the city will play host to.

There are no moving walkways or illuminated signs in the terminal, but a system of red and blue running lanes - blue pathways for departures and red for arrivals. The terminal was built specifically for low-cost carriers and designed by a Japanese creative lab group called PARTY.

The budget constraint and the fact that the airport had to be built on a cost half of the usual, were part of the reasons behind the unusual alternative architectural concept. The running tracks replace expensive electronic signage with simple static signs and provide easy-to-follow markings to travellers in order to reach their destinations inside the airport.

This not only adds an element of fun and excitement, but also negates the possibility of confusion common in any big terminal

One would want to run through this terminal even if he is not late for his flight. The airport has surely given a new meaning to “running to catch a flight”!