View Full Version : New Terminal Frequency
davidjohnson6
3rd Sep 2022, 16:36
People may joke about an airport being a building site being visited by aircraft, but for most airports, it's a long time between *major* pieces of passenger-visible building infrastructure being erected or terminals being extended.
Would anyone care to say an *average* number of years that elapse between occasions when an airport is visited by large numbers of construction workers ? Yes, I understand some airports have construction binges followed by long periods of no change... and a rapidly growing economy can shorten the time period until the next building is erected.
Perhaps different numbers of average years for large, medium and small airports ? I was thinking maybe 10, 20 and 30 years, but would be keen to hear other opinions
People may joke about an airport being a building site being visited by aircraft, but for most airports, it's a long time between *major* pieces of passenger-visible building infrastructure being erected or terminals being extended.
Would anyone care to say an *average* number of years that elapse between occasions when an airport is visited by large numbers of construction workers ? Yes, I understand some airports have construction binges followed by long periods of no change... and a rapidly growing economy can shorten the time period until the next building is erected.
Perhaps different numbers of average years for large, medium and small airports ? I was thinking maybe 10, 20 and 30 years, but would be keen to hear other opinions
I think it varies. When I was at LCY there was always some kind of work going on. Usually projects happened one at a time, so we had taxiway refurbishment, followed by new jet centre, extension to the jet centre, apron extension, improved baggage handling area etc so there was always some kind of construction going on.
I guess most airports are similar to the painting of the Firth Bridge. By the time you finish it’s time to start again.
Dannyboy39
3rd Sep 2022, 20:27
There’s probably been constant building work going on at Luton since about 1996.
jensdad
3rd Sep 2022, 21:35
Maybe these sentiments would be better-suited to 'Aviation History & Nostalgia', but I do yearn for the 'good old days' when I see photos such as these (Heathrow and Dublin, but there are many other examples). Airports these days, with a few exceptions, are just a mish-mash of one extension after another, normally with no attempt to make them match each other. Newcastle Airport, in particular, is hands-down the worst public building in the city. And that's saying something.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/591x397/capture_heathrow_591x397__784e2972aeb56a0af85363e09b85a77902 993909.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/640x396/capture_dublin_640x396__8b40faf81e096314c6eee7a9758187d39beb bdf4.jpg
Flap40
4th Sep 2022, 15:15
We always used to refer to Amsterdam as 'the only building site with its own airport'. ;)
Asturias56
5th Sep 2022, 00:01
The days are long long gone when an airport was designed as an entity which wouldn't change.
The reality is that since the early '70's you build in space and layout to allow infinite changes. You have no idea what the loads will be or the size of the aircraft, You don't know about changes in Security, health, baggage, passenger size and reasons for travelling over the next 60 years
You build a series of boxes that can be easily modified or expanded.
A modern airports should resemble an Amazon warehouse rather than a palace