In response to some of the points and questions which my previous post has generated.
MAG sold off most of the cargo area in 2020/21 to Columbia Threadneedle, a real estate company. Have a look at the website linked below, it shows the area in question. In master planning terms this is where you might think to relocate some core facilities such as transit sheds, maintenance hangars, GA etc from their existing locations in order to free up sites which are better located for new aprons - i.e. closer to the runways and served by existing taxiways. MAG kept a strip comprising the existing transit sheds, which was assumed to be developed as future aprons, but I was never clear as to how this new apron would be accessed by aircraft, except by deleting the existing stands 67-72. No nett gain.
Big swathes of land have been lost to Airport City in exactly the areas you imagine would be reserved for core use in any long term major expansion plan. The loss of land to Airport City North in part drove the development of the new T2 multi storey car park right alongside the new terminal extension. This is surely where you would imagine a future expansion to the building and/or the apron might have gone. Airport City West (Global Logistics) has taken a site which could be a future terminal, aprons, cargo centre, or a rail hub with an extension of the existing line westwards. The A538 need not be an obstacle to getting aircraft over there. Regrading of the road and/or a taxiway bridge like Schipol would take care of that. Out to the east of T3 there is land but it has repeatedly failed business cases using MAG's model of ROI. Lots of underground services to relocate, plus other opportunity costs of replacing lost revenue streams. It is the same all over the estate. Can't go to the south because of land ownership, green belt, SSSI issues. Can't go north due to existing urbanisation and land sold off to Airport City. Going west some limited land is available at the transit sheds, but no detailed plans were in existence as to how any new aprons would integrate into the existing taxiway network and affect aircraft ground movement. Going east - limited and very expensive in terms of development cost against revenue driven. MAN is as much 'boxed in' by MAG's business model as it is by the physical constraints.
Existing estate — World Freight Terminal
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