Airport Masterplanning Solutions

It also identified the growth potential of the UK airline industry and set a framework for development for each airport accordingly. In the past, airport developments in the UK have suffered due to a lack of long term planning and projects have been executed in reaction to immediate needs. This has resulted in development opportunities being lost due to lack of foresight.

REID architecture has been instrumental in setting the standards for Master Planning of BAA airports in line with the Government recommendations. The first of these was Glasgow Airport and the study was completed in 2005. The second of these at Edinburgh Airport will reach its recommendations by early in 2007. Our process is not to establish a rigorous, set plan but create a fluid development strategy.

Airport master planning needs to look at the development of the airport for up to 20 or 30 years and aims to approach airport development with a strategy which is flexible yet focused on the long term aspirations of the airport. There are three main stages in master planning.

1. Information gathering
2. Option identification
3. Recommendations.

Stage one requires gathering information on the airport and its surroundings including

• Identification of land uses on the airfield and the surrounding areas.
• Analysis of the airfield and its operational requirements.
• Analysis of the terminal building and its expansion potential.
• Analysis of the landside roads, parking and commercial development land.
• Identifying potential land required for development both airside and landside.
• Environmental impact analysis of the site and its surroundings including ecology, noise pollution and air quality.

Stage two (Option identification) involves testing options for the development of the airport to cater for the projected future requirements identifying options for potential growth and phasing of the airfield, the terminal building and landside facilities.

Stage three (Recommendations) involves scoring the options under various headings from cost, phasing potential and passenger experience so that a preferred option is identified. The preferred option will allow for flexibility of expansion so that the airport can react to changing trends in travel.

Our approach is to solve design issues in the following sequence:

1. Airside
2. Terminal
3. Landside

So what are the benefits of having a development plan?

• Avoid spending money on projects that are in the wrong place or that will need to be moved to allow for further expansion.
• See the potential to combine projects for mutual benefit and economy.
• Allow operations to be integrated.
• Maximise land for operations and commercial development.

A master plan must be robust enough to cope with projected future aspirations while allowing flexibility for the inevitable unknown factors. It is a live working document which, while setting out a vision for the future, sets a development framework.

This framework is constantly being updated and revised in line with political, economic and environmental factors which will all at some point come into play on the world of the future, where the only thing of which we can be sure is change.