Birmingham Airport invests further in terminal facilities
Image courtesy Birmingham Airport
The first stage is an additional baggage carousel to complement the existing six within its ‘north’ departure baggage make-up area. As passenger numbers at Birmingham Airport increases, the demand for baggage capacity increases.
The development of the extra carousel will be ready for the busy summer peak and sees an investment of £4.2m for this project.
The second part of development will benefit arriving customers in the ‘south’ arrivals area. A full reconfiguration is underway that will expand the south immigration area, and the baggage reclaim area, before the summer peak. This project will provide an increase from five to eight primary control points, that are operated by UK Border Force and will future proof the introduction of E-gates. These additional desks will ensure that UK Border Force has a larger immigration hall to process arriving passengers into BHX.
In addition to the extra primary control points for the border, existing baggage carousels will be increased to accommodate more bags. These changes to the Immigration and Baggage Hall will permit an increase in the amount of arriving flights that BHX can process in this area to upto eight an hour, at an investment of £6.4m.
Al Titterington, Terminal Operations Director of Birmingham Airport commenting on the development said: “Birmingham Airport was the airport of choice for over 13m customers to the end of the financial year. With forecasts of up to 13.8 passengers this year, we want to ensure we provide the best possible customer service.
“Last year investment was focused on the outbound customer journey but with these projects the emphasis is providing the right welcome to the region, with increased baggage capacity and additional immigration desks to be resourced and operated by our Border Force colleagues as well as catering for the increased outbound demand. By investing in these areas, we can adequately cater for the increase in customers and ensure we are on our way to hit our 13.8m target this year.”
Birmingham Airport has an extensive on-going capital plan that is responsible for asset replacement, ensuring capacity growth and environmental improvements.
