Originally Posted by
JW95
Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but assuming that MAG decides to completely remodel and reconfigure satellite 2 to include fully-closed gate rooms, similar to say LGW pier 2 of the South Terminal and LHR Terminal 3, how is this going to be accommodated in an open-plan satellite boarding area, and how will this work when all gates and jet bridges need to be accessed via escalators one floor below? Surely these gate rooms would feel pretty narrow and cramped? This sounds like a major project for Sat 2 (even more so than the refurb of Sat 1 was), so I'd imagine it would be out of use for quite some time, so aircraft stand and gate provision would be fairly restricted. I'm also wondering what is to become of the existing gates 81-88, are these set to go when the existing footbridge from the terminal gets demolished? In a way, I'm sort of surprised that MAG opted not to install conventional gate rooms in sat 1 when it was refurbished, since most of the airlines other than FR and EZY use these gates. I don't think sat 3 will see many, if any changes during the terminal transformation plan (extension).
I wouldn't know the exact details but I'd suspect there would be some reconfiguration of the arrivals level in Sat 1 and 2 and pre-boarding passengers would be held there. So my guess would be you'd scan your boarding pass as now in the main departures area then go down the stairs/escalators to a newly designed pre-boarding space segregated from arrival flows. Staff operated doors would then allow departures to enter the links/airbridge once arriving pax have cleared, which is pretty much what happens now except for the lack of pre-boarding space. There's already some unused/poorly used space round those areas which could maybe be remodeled.
Sat 3 is different in that there is complete separation of departure and arrival flows. Departures come from the links upstairs whereas arrivals go straight into the building across the road at apron level, unlike Sat 1 and 2.
As for Gates 81-88, these would have to be redesigned to accommodate intl arrivals. These serve Stands B30-32R and C40-C42L. If you look at the GCI images of the Skylinks on the MAG video you can see a new split level access to Sat 2 from the new bussing gates. Currently at Gates 81-88, this split level doesn't exist.