Birmingham Airport runway extension work to start

Work will start this summer on an improvement scheme for the A45 trunk road which runs past Birmingham Airport (BHX) and will allow for a 405m runway extension.  When the work is fully completed in the spring of 2014 BHX will have operational a single 3000m long runway allowing for non-stop flights to Los Angeles and Hong Kong with the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 and, for the future, Singapore by Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.

The runway extension works are currently estimated at £33m and will be funded by the airport.  It is making a further investment of £13m for the construction of a new air traffic control tower and radar system, which will be operational in 2013, and £9m in a resurfacing of the current runway.  BHX has a complex ownership arrangement: 49% – seven West Midland Metropolitan District Councils; 48.25% – Airport Group Investments Ltd (AGIL), a limited company owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers’) and Australia’s Victorian Funds Management Corp (VFMC); 2.75% – Airport staff, through an employee share trust.

The A45 Corridor Improvement works are funded by £10m by the West Midland Transport Authority, £7m from the airport, and potentially £15.7m through the Government’s Regional Growth Fund which is under negotiation. www.bhx.co.uk

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