Although the exact date is not yet confirmed, next month will see the recently-converted former passenger terminal at Lux-Airport open for business as the new airport's Terminal B.
Already the signs have changed, with passengers flying to regional airline destinations within the Schengen travel area embarking from Terminal B. The 200m walkway - including 2-way travelators - between the two buildings has been completed - very bright with windows almost the full length. As one walks along it, there are two aircraft parking bays between the two terminals - these are for larger planes accepting walk-on passengers.
As one reaches the new Terminal B (on the 1st floor), one is met by a bar/restaurant (LUX Brewery Lounge) and a duty free shop (operated by Aelia). All the furniture is new, with comfortable seats (460 in total) each with accessible power points and USB ports. The ground fllor has an open lounge area, including desks for using laptops, etc. And each gate has a pre-boarding area and self-boarding machines.
Terminal B has a total of 9 gates and will be used by smaller planes, including those from Luxair, Lufthansa, LOT, HOP!, Volotea, KLM and possibly others. With the aircraft parking next to the boarding gate, there will be no need for buses to ferry passengers those ultra short distances, to board and disembark the aircraft.
Passengers arriving will then take the stairs/escalators to the first floor of the building, with passengers departing via the ground floor departure gates.
The original budget for this expansion-cum-renovation was set at €4.5 million; with a number of other issues addressed at the same time, the total expenditure hit €5 million. This will increase the capacity of the passenger airport from 3 million passengers annually to 4 million.
