The capital investment of circa £1.6 million has been approved by the Board of Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and the Scottish Executive.

The expansion of the south apron will accommodate higher volumes of scheduled aircraft at the region’s gateway airport. It will increase existing apron capacity by 50% by creating two additional parking stands capable of accommodating aircraft up to Boeing 737 size. This will alleviate current congestion at busy times of the day and enable the airport to accommodate more scheduled traffic with a range of aircraft sizes in the future.

The project is scheduled for completion by summer 2006 and will not interrupt normal airport operations.

Inverness Airport manager James Walton said: “Aircraft movements at Inverness have increased by almost 19% in the current year and the addition of two parking stands will serve to meet existing demand, alleviate congestion and enable us to accommodate more scheduled traffic in the future as we continue to develop the airport.”