Manchester Airport’s Terminal 3 to expand in multimillion pound revamp

A project to increase the size of the departure lounge in Manchester Airport’s Terminal 3 by over a third has been given the green light.

The multimillion-pound project will increase the floorspace of the departure lounge in the terminal by about 2,000 square metres.

It will create extra space for passengers, increase natural light levels and provide room for a range of new shops.

It follows recent improvements to the terminal – which now serves the airport’s Ryanair passengers exclusively – like the opening of the new Sporting Chance bar and the creation of a new entrance and security area.

A new Italian restaurant – Terracotta – will also open in the coming weeks.

Manchester Airport Managing Director Chris Woodroofe said:

“Here at Manchester Airport we are proud to connect the North to the World – serving record-breaking passenger numbers via a route network that is unrivalled outside the capital.

“We’ve completely redeveloped our award-winning Terminal 2 through our £1.5bn investment and now we’re turning our attention to Terminal 3. We’ve already made significant changes but now we’re ready to accelerate that work and provide more space and facilities for our Ryanair passengers.

“It’s a really exciting project and I’m really pleased to see it starting to take off. We’ll be announcing even more in the coming weeks.”

Over the last decade Manchester Airport has invested around £1.5bn in the complete redevelopment of Terminal 2. The award-winning terminal building now looks after around 75% of the airport’s passengers allowing for the old Terminal 1 to close.

Terminals 1 and 3 are joined so parts of Terminal 1 – including its security hall and entrance – have been incorporated into Terminal 3 to improve it.

The new plans will make use of space that was once part of the landside operation in Terminal 3 but has been out of use since late last year.

Among the next steps will be a competitive tender to bring new retailers into the added space and details of the process will be announced in the coming weeks.