Farrans appointed to build new Stansted Airport skylinks

London Stansted Airport has appointed Farrans as its partner for the construction of the airport’s new skylink walkways.

The new skylinks are an integral feature of the airport’s transformation programme, creating new walkways to directly connect the terminal to existing satellite buildings that are home to the departure and arrival gates.

A generated internal image within new skylinks. Photo: MAG

The project will improve passenger journeys between the terminal and gate areas, while enabling future phases of expansion by allowing Stansted’s existing track transit people mover system to be decommissioned. The removal of the system will create space for the terminal building to be extended towards the airfield in later phases of the transformation work.

How will the new Stansted skylinks improve passenger journeys?

The centrepiece of the programme is a three-bay extension to the existing terminal that will transform the customer experience. It adds 16,500m2 of space, creating a bright spacious environment with new shops, bars and restaurants, making Stansted the biggest single terminal airport in Europe.

The skylinks will feature passenger travelators and allow for assistance buggies to take passengers with reduced mobility on the full journey between the terminal and the arrival and departure gates.

Work will begin later this summer with pre-assembly of skylink sections taking place ‘offsite’ in a vacant airport hangar on the northside of the airfield.

This method of construction will save time and by reducing working at height, creates a safer working environment, as well as reducing congestion in busy airport operational areas.

How will Stansted build the new passenger walkways?

Once each section is completed, they will be transported overnight from the construction hangar across the airfield on self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) to minimise disruption to the airport’s operation.

Rob Stewart, London Stansted’s Capital Delivery Programme Director, said: “We’re delighted to continue our strong and successful partnership with Farrans at London Stansted having successfully worked with the team through the design, planning and enabling phases of the skylinks project, a vital component in our overall transformation programme.

“We now move to the construction phase of the work, where Farran’s expertise and experience of delivering airport projects in busy operational environments will be invaluable.

“The airport continues to welcome record numbers of passengers so together with our delivery partners we are really building momentum on our transformation programme that will deliver new passenger facilities, support growth and unlock capacity on our existing single runway.”

Glenn Gilmore, Regional Director at Farrans, said: “Passengers arriving to London Stansted will already be able to see that we are mobilising our site in preparation for main works to begin during this exciting period of transformation for the airport.

“Construction in aviation environments comes with many unique challenges including making sure that our clients’ business operations can continue 24/7 with minimal disruption every day. We are specialists in managing these tricky interfaces with our extensive experience on site at numerous other UK airports.

“We will be collaborating closely with our clients and their operations team as we deliver this important project to support passenger number growth at London Stansted.”