A major expansion of the airport has been announced with British architect Norman Foster winning the design contract. Airports are in keen competition with each other and Marseille Provence wants to be able to welcome 11 million passengers a year by 2025.
Foster and his partners will be working on providing a ‘coeur’, or central structure of 20,000 square metres, 23 metres high and filled with light. This arrivals and departures hall will tie together the original 60s building by Fernand Pouillon and the 1992 extension by Richard Rogers. The cost will be in the region of 250M euros.
This new extension will have 70 check-in desks which will be highly-automated and use facial-recognition technology; it will also be the commercial heart of the airport with new boutiques and eateries. We are also promised large windows overlooking the runways from a top floor viewing area.
A later development will be a new jetty at right angles to the existing building, equipped to receive large air-craft. According to a report on France 3, they envision being able to welcome many more visitors from Asian countries than is possible today.
Thank you to Dympna for information in this post. Here is a link for more: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/news/archive/2017/11/foster-partners-wins-marseille-airport-extension-design-competition/#main
Terminal 2, in the meantime, is having a 14 million euro refurb and extension. No details to be found but work starts in March 2018.
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