I think we have to differentiate between what the airport is doing now in the short term (where it does not need planning consent) to try to deal with ever-increasing passenger numbers and what it wants to do in the longer term (ie incrementally over the next five years), as set out in the master plan, to bring about a facility that can cope comfortably with 9 million passengers per year.
It has recently extended the mezzanine floor area to provide an increased space for tables to accommodate those using the airside refreshment outlets.
During the winter it will increase the number of security lanes/ x-ray machines to nine by extending the space above the landside ground floor arrivals area.
The master plan calls, inter alia, for the terminal building to be doubled in size with extensions at both the eastern and western ends. A two-level covered corridor/pier would take passengers from/to parked aircraft to/from the terminal. Plans and drawings of this scheme can be seen in the master plan, accessible via the airport's website.
There is nothing in the plan suggesting a lengthy covered walkway to the area currently occupied by stand 23 etc.
The submission of planning applications for the extended terminal and the other infrastructure enhancements are already over 18 months behind the original publicly-stated schedule. This is partly due to the need for independent scrutiny of the airport's proposals, some of which has now been done, to satisfy the requests of the local authority, and the new CEO taking a look at the entire shooting match.
The minutes of the last Consultative Committee meeting (held in July) state that the landside catering outlet is to be removed airside in November to improve the flow management for security purposes. I don't quite follow this as the security area is on the first floor. Furthermore, this will presumably mean more scarce airside passenger space being lost.
The same minutes speak of zoning the western apron with one for cargo/mail flights and the other for passenger flights. Has this already been done?
As usual, the CO flight to EWR gets a mention in the minutes with the load split given as 60% originating in the UK and 40% in the USA which is much better than was once the case when it was predominantly UK pax using the service.