Birmingham Airport has started construction of the new 30m GBP extension to its departure lounge. The event was marked by the presence of Aviation Minister Paul Maynard.
Paul Maynard was joined by Birmingham Airport’s CEO Nick Barton and newly elected MP for Meriden, Saqib Bhatti for the ground-breaking ceremony as the airport’s biggest terminal investment in a decade gets underway. Once complete, the project will give the existing terminal a modern, two-storey extension with an outdoor terrace. This will increase the overall space by 45 percent and provide more natural light, circulation space, seating and toilets. There will also be five new catering units and three more retail outlets.
Paul Maynard is currently on a tour of UK regional airports, which he launched at Liverpool John Lennon Airport. This tour is part of the DfT’s Regional Air Connectivity Review, which aims to support regional connectivity in the country across various modes of transport.
“Our second city's airport serves more than one million passengers every month, so it is vital that it has the world class facilities and state-of-the-art infrastructure it deserves.
“this modern extension to the departure lounge will be good news for the whole of Birmingham, helping boost the local economy while still supporting the airport's wider commitment of becoming net zero by 2033.”
At its highest, the extension will be 21m tall. It will measure 130m in length. The construction will require a thousand tons of steel with 200 workers involved in the project during its peak.
“The extended lounge forms part of a wider terminal transformation project, known as TE18, which will cater for the forecast growth in passenger numbers to 18 million per year by the year 2033. The departure lounge extension is the largest component of TE18 and the biggest terminal investment we have made in ten years, at a cost of £30m. Once complete early next year, it will provide a spacious and modern facility for our customers with a wide range of shops, restaurants and amenities.”
Birmingham Airport published its Master Plan, detailing how it would invest 500 million GBP over the next 15 years to accommodate the forecast 40 percent increase in passenger numbers, from, currently, 12.7 million annually to 18 million by 2033. Importantly, this growth has to occur within the airport’s existing boundary and from its current runway.
Other aspects of the Terminal Expansion project (TE18) include increasing the size of the passenger security search area, equipping it with the latest x-ray equipment, installing additional self-service bag drop kiosks, increasing capacity in the baggage make-up hall, and providing more arrivals baggage carousels.
As Birmingham Airport also said it would become a net zero carbon airport by 2033 ahead of the UK’s 2050 target, it is producing a carbon roadmap to show how it can deliver on this goal over the next 15 years.
