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Airport design has improved significantly in the last 20 years. Design has moved from simple protection from the elements to almost full automation. Many older airport facilities are now outdated and require replacement. The decision to replace must be made based upon benchmarking with similar airport facilities. Summarises the current position with airport design and suggests that efficient use of facilities cannot depend upon shareholder return alone but must be based on national interest and efficiency demonstrated through external benchmarking. Suggests that facilities managers must be aware of the expectations of the airlines and passengers and the indicators used in the assessment of performance. Outlines the reasons that influence an airport’s decision to upgrade or replace its terminal facilities.

Design errors in an airport passenger building can be extremely costly. Failure to plan may result in configurations and systems that are inappropriate for the future. The performance of an optimal building configuration depends to a large extent on the kind of technology provided for the transportation of passengers and baggage. Poorly selected technology can undermine the operational efficiency of a good configuration and vice versa. With massive growth in air travel and the scale of modern passenger buildings, more reliance will be placed on transport technology to achieve acceptable walk distances and travel times. Therefore it is critical to consider in the overall design strategy how a particular building configuration and its associated technology will perform under conditions of change. Good design practice dictates that performance be assessed using multiple criteria over a broad range of possible conditions. The difficulty in predicting future conditions makes the selection of a robust system critical to the long‐term success of an airport. This paper examines the various systems available and concludes that different system combinations are appropriate for airports with different levels of passenger throughput.