Bristol Airport terminal extension announced

The airport's future plans include extending the west terminal and building an on-site hotel

Bristol Airport has announced £8.6m plans for an extension to its eastern terminal building which is scheduled to be fully open by next summer.

It will be the first major expansion of the terminal building since it opened in 2000 and is expected to deliver an improved baggage processing area.

The announcement follows the opening of the £6.5m central walkway, designed to ease congestion at peak times.

An outdoor terrace will be built for passengers waiting to board flights.

The central walkway and eastern terminal extension are part of a development of the airport, with overall planning approval in place for facilities to handle 10 million passengers a year.

During 2013 the airport handled 6.1 million passengers.