BAGGAGE reclaim at Birmingham Airport is set to be given a £10.6million revamp to cope with increasing passenger numbers.
It is part of the airport’s £100million refurbishment plans set out in 2016, which saw a new state-of-the-art security hall opened last summer.
The first stage of the latest £4.2million investment will see an additional baggage carousel to complement the existing six within the airport’s north area – ready for the busy summer peak. The second stage will benefit those in the south area.
Plans have also been revealed for a full reconfiguration to expand the south immigration area, and the baggage reclaim area, before the summer peak.
It will see an increase from five to eight primary control points to give UK Border Force a larger immigration hall to process arriving passengers.
In addition to the extra control points for the border, existing baggage carousels will be increased to cope with more bags.
The changes are set to allow an increase in the number of arriving flights the airport can process to up to eight an hour, at an investment of £6.4million.
Al Titterington, terminal operations director, said: “Birmingham Airport was the airport of choice for over 13million customers to the end of the financial year. With forecasts of up to 13.8million passengers this year, we want to ensure we provide the best possible customer service.
“Last year investment was focused on the outbound customer journey but with these projects the emphasis is providing the right welcome to the region, with increased baggage capacity and additional immigration desks to be resourced and operated by our Border Force colleagues as well as catering for the increased outbound demand.
“By investing in these areas, we can adequately cater for the increase in customers and ensure we are on our way to hit our 13.8million target this year.”
