Perth Airport reveals futuristic design for $700m makeover

It might seem like something out of The Jetsons, but this is the latest look for Perth Airport.

Designed by Australian-based international architectural practice Woods Bagot, the extension to the international terminal is part of an ambitious three-year $700 million project to update both the domestic and international arms of the airport – which is expected to be handling some 20 million passengers per year by 2031 if the state’s resources boom keeps on, well, booming.

The first stage of the expansion includes the construction of a new domestic terminal, adjacent to the current international terminal, which is already underway and scheduled to open early in 2013.

The second major project includes a $500m expansion and upgrade of the International arrivals area including a larger incoming duty free retail area and baggage reclaim hall, relocating the immigration primary line to the first level and reconfiguring the quarantine and customs secondary search area on the ground floor.

By mid-2014 the international terminal will also sport a new pier with two Airbus A380 gates, although this will also also handle domestic flights for easier passenger transfers.

Another part of the plan is the new ‘fly in, fly out’ terminal dedicated to workers heading from Perth to the state’s resource-rich north-west.

Dubbed Terminal WA, and designed in consultation with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the facility will be built on a single level so that workers can arrive from interstate and head out on regional flights without having to move between floors.

Some 36,000 passengers employed in the resources industry transit through Perth each week. The terminal will initially have parking for 20 aircraft when it opens in early 2012, but will eventually accommodate up to 35 planes.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.