The £10 million extension of Sumburgh Airport’s main instrument runway is progressing to schedule.

The project involves the extension of the runway’s eastern and western ends into the sea through land reclamation and will open up opportunities to increase capacity on existing air services and develop new scheduled services with larger types of aircraft.

More than 120,000 m³ of infill material has already been deposited in the sea by principal contractor Balfour Beatty since work started on site on 25 April. This material, around half of the total projected infill requirement, has been extracted from the Wilsness Hill area of the airport. Work is progressing without interruption to the airport’s operations.

The runway extension is the largest ever capital project undertaken by HIAL and is being project managed by Shetland Islands Council. It involves extending the runway and modifications to the existing airfield ground lighting and instrument landing system at the airport.

The project has been the key aim for the members of the Sumburgh Airport Strategic Partnership for more than two years. The partnership comprises HIAL, Shetland Islands Council, Shetland Enterprise, and Sumburgh Airport Consultative Committee. The project is also one of the Highlands and Islands Strategic Transport Partnership’s (HITRANS) infrastructure priorities for the region.

Funding commitments from the SASP partners and the Scottish Executive, via HITRANS, were finalised earlier this year along with match funding from the European Regional Development Fund through the Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme 2000-2006.

The project has a target date of 31 October 2006 for the extended runway becoming operational and will also facilitate the development of the Wilsness Hill site for airport and commercial uses in the longer term.

HIAL’s Managing Director, Inglis Lyon, said: “The lengthening of the runway will create new opportunities at Sumburgh. It allow larger aircraft to take off and land, improve the reliability of existing passenger services by removing the current load restrictions and make it possible to develop new scheduled and oil industry traffic.

“This should result in higher numbers of passengers travelling through the airport and enable more people to travel to and from Shetland for business and leisure. It will also allow us to work with airlines to expand air services, particularly between the islands and the Faroes and Scandinavia, all of which will support the islands’ economy,” he said.

Nigel Flaws, Sumburgh Airport Manager, said: “The initial land reclamation is progressing very well. Once this phase is completed we will start placing the rock armour on the outer limits of the extended runway area before the winter.”

ENDS