Newcastle International Airport is the region’s largest airport and is run as a Public Private Partnership between seven local authorities in the North East region and AMP Capital; each with a 51% and 49% shareholding respectively of the company. Aiming to reinforce their position as one of Britain’s leading regional airports, Newcastle International Airport are investing over £14 million in a major development of its departure lounge in a bid to become the most welcoming airport in the UK.
“The departure lounge will have a modern and vibrant shopping centre feel – something that we know from feedback is what our customers want,” explains Dave Laws, Chief Executive at Newcastle International Airport. With this in mind global architects Chapman Taylor, renowned for their award winning Trinity Leeds project, set out to design a fresh new concept for the first stage of the development.
Following the brief set by Newcastle International Airport and Chapman Taylor, Strata Tiles worked in partnership with Mirage to supply a tile that incorporated natural elements which could be reinterpreted in a creative way, according to the contemporary planning requirements supplied by the airport. The Nort’e range was installed as a material with a distinctive random graining, with pebbles of different colours, size, tones and hues; thus providing a modern 3D effect.
With the first stage of this development now complete phase two is set to begin in autumn 2014, with a completion predicted by May 2015.
“This development is an important part of the commercial strategy for the airport. The new departure lounge is a major investment by the airport, and its business partners, for the benefit of passengers. The plans are very exciting and I’m sure the full development will be extremely popular.” concludes David Rees of AMP Capital.
