I have done a search and couldn't see this posted anywhere, and as this is major news for Manchester, I think it deserves its own post, as something might be lurking in a MAN forum which occasionally pops up on here.

Manchester Airport have unveiled plans for a £1 biillion pound expansion of the airport, main benefits are:

- Terminal 2 to be expanded by 140%, and merged with Terminal 3.
- Increase in passenger number from the current 23 million to 50 million.
- Improved facilities for connecting flights.
- US Pre-Clearence Facilities to be available to airlines.
- Improved high speed rail connections.

The expansion will be managed using the airports current two runways.

The US Pre-Clearence is an exciting prospect for airport and wonder if this will attract more flights and possible stop-overs for other carriers operating to and from the US?

easyJet have given commitment to the airports future expansion, which makes you wonder if their base will become a similar size to that of Gatwick, and maybe overtake Luton as the second largest UK base.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....rt-expansion-plan-security-9370929

Ultimately the airport wants to attract more long haul carriers, not sure how successful this will be, considering the airport already has flights operated by most the major US carriers and excellent connections to the Middle East with the big three carriers, also Singapore and Cathay Pacific already have the Far East covered. Alongside extensive coverage by nearly all the European carriers to their respective hubs.

Maybe they hoping for a new Virgin Atlantic hub or that IAG group will look beyond LHR, especially with the current Conservative government not looking too favourably for a third runway at the Heathrow airport, regardless of what the review recommends for runway expansion in the Southeast of England, which is due to be released imminently.

Maybe then BA might change it's policy and look beyond London and open up a mini hub at Manchester, similar to Lufthansa at Munich.

[Edited 2015-06-02 03:37:10]

Excellent news, amusing by one of the renderings showing a room terrace with people outside - have the architects seen how much it rains in Manchester  

Quoting gilesdavies (Thread starter): The US Pre-Clearence is an exciting prospect for airport and wonder if this will attract more flights and possible stop-overs for other carriers operating to and from the US?

We were discussing this on the Irish thread and what future impact it might have on DUB. Its good news for MAN and LHR as they are on the list too. It will be interesting to see how things pan out.

Quoting gilesdavies (Thread starter): I have done a search and couldn't see this posted anywhere

It's right here on the first page MAN News 54... Chinese Takeaway Time (by david_itl Feb 4 2015 in Civil Aviation)

However it is such big news that it probably does deserve its own thread   

Quoting scouseflyer (Reply 1): Excellent news, amusing by one of the renderings showing a room terrace with people outside

A roof terrace? I'll believe *that* when I see it. This is the UK we're talking about, so get ready for a lot of bluster about "exciting new retail experiences" and not much else. We'll be lucky if they remember to put seating at the gates.

T1 to be demolished. I imagine a new building will replace T1 and this will be merged with T3? T3 alone is tiny.

This is exciting news, its been on the cards for so long. I know they had to overcome obstacles such as parts of T1 being listed etc so this is great news. Over the years due to constraints theyve just had to remodel the existing layout which isnt user friendly.

Quoting Danfearn77 (Reply 5): This is exciting news, its been on the cards for so long. I know they had to overcome obstacles such as parts of T1 being listed etc so this is great news. Over the years due to constraints theyve just had to remodel the existing layout which isnt user friendly.

Sounds similar to how they are working at LHR...

Will probably extend T2 first and once this has the capacity all the traffic from T1 will be merged into T2, then take T1 out of action to knock down, then rebuild when hopefully by that time there is demand for the nerwly extended T2/T3 and the shiny new T1 building.

Nice, this looks like quite a massive revamp of the airport. Though I would like to see some more detailed Master Plan rather than generic statements and renderings. There is vague talk about improved rail connections - it would be interesting to know more about that as it will be critical to the catchment area.

Quoting gilesdavies (Thread starter): The expansion will be managed using the airports current two runways.

Two close-spaced runways with a capacity of 60 ops/hour for 50 million pax? Ok, capacity could likely be lifted to 70ish with more taxiways. But I still find that number very hard to achieve with the current runway config...

US pre clearance is a great bonus... At LHR I'm not sure how they will work it... They could have a facility at T3 for the VS, DL and AA flights from there and possiblly T2 for the UA flights although maybe the volume isn't enough?

The big stumbling block there is T5... I imagine they would have to block off an entire satellite (my guess is B?) just for US flights for BA.

Not to mention the UK government's position on this...

Quoting r2rho (Reply 7):

Not to mention Runway 2 doesnt have a full length taxiway....

Surely this has to be rectified.

As for VS, expect expansion over the short to medium term.....

I hope the plans include passenger seating areas. Excluding the seating areas in T1 gates 29-32 etc. the loading areas generally amount to queuing in corridors.

Scouseflyer - your roof terrace is actually, I believe, a 'cut away' view through to part of the Terminal 2 interior.

So the original plan of a terminal 2 satellite pier is now abandoned? It is actually shown already on my Manchester A-Z street map! However the rather basic CGI images I have seen so far I think are better.
As for removing the bottleneck that exists to reach T2 and the most Western Pier of T1, well this is welcome. However I do have to comment that it was possible to remove the bottleneck by moving the fire station however they then built the new control tower just there also! Which begs a new question that I would like to have answered;
Which future layout was the new control tower optimised for? The original T2 satellite extension or for the plans announced today?

[Edited 2015-06-02 14:10:00]

Boysteve
Firstly, as far as I am aware the fire station and the new tower have no direct effect on the installation of a dual taxi-way to T2. The problem is the end of Pier C, or the area of the old fuel farm/airfield operations portacabins.

With regards to the operational orientation of the tower, the ground controllers have a far better view of T2 than ever before although the view of the T3 stands on the east side of the pier is rather blocked by the roof of T3 itself.

Quoting mpsrent (Reply 10): I hope the plans include passenger seating areas. Excluding the seating areas in T1 gates 29-32 etc. the loading areas generally amount to queuing in corridors.

If you're sitting down, you're not spending money in a shop or restaurant - the worst nightmare of every UK airport operator.

MAN was a non-BAA facility for years, so it didn't fall victim to the "retail uber alles" mentality until much later than most of the others, but it's there now. I have extremely low expectations for this project. Every airport expansion project in the UK for the last 20 years has produced a big glass-and-steel shed packed full of forced routings through shops and restaurants and generally short of seating, windows and circulation space.

More on the pre-clearance


Playing it all out behind closed doors....


"Ken O’Toole, managing director of Manchester Airport, said: “We have been in discussion with the US Department of Homeland Security for some time about securing pre-clearance at Manchester Airport for passengers travelling to the United States."

Hence the delayed announcement regarding expansion?

Fantastic news. As much as I love Heathrow this creates another power house airport in the right part of the country. Edinburgh is attempting to do the same further north. A good geographical spread.

This, almost re-build, is badly needed. Security got upgraded over the last year, but is still a nightmare for most passengers. Half the airport flows beautifully, has good seating and has a good retail/food split. But the other half is very disjointed and awkward.

Hopefully this will reset back to basics and cut out the issues that have developed with building on top of issues just to cope with the passenger volume.

Any thoughts on how US Pre-Clearence could affect Shannon/Dublin and will this put the pressure on Heathrow to get this facility? Especially after the recent Homeland announcement.

Is there potential at Heathrow to create another Terminal 5 satelite (D?) and move all BA American flights as well as AA/US flights to it? Similar to SKAirbus thoughts..?

There could be a start up airline based there, perhaps called North West Airways, maybe IAG could then take it over to get a foothold at the airport.