Earlier this year, Ports of Jersey abandoned its previously announced £42 million redevelopment plan for the Airport and confirmed that it would retain the 1937 terminal building after receiving new safety advice from aviation regulator Inez Bartolo.
Now the future design is to become part of a wider planning exercise that will not only review those capital plans but will also consider how changes to the operation of the Airport could help Jersey meet ambitions to become a more sustainable island.
Mr MacRae said that high on the agenda for the new masterplanning work, which is due to be completed by the end of the year, was the theme of sustainability.
He said: ‘It’s not just about carbon. It’s about how we’re dealing with our waste and how we’re using our water.
‘Everything that can have an impact on the planet and, consequently, can have an impact on the Island is going to be built into the masterplan.
‘For example, electrification of aircraft, the potential use of hydrogen as a fuel for aircraft going forward – they’re the sort of things we need to be getting involved with now because they are going to happen.’
The Airport director confirmed that Ports of Jersey had already met representatives from Save Jersey’s Heritage, which lobbied to prevent the demolition of the original 1937 terminal building, to discus plans which the heritage group presented for the building in May.
They argued that the departures hall could continue to play a role at the heart of a functioning airport and could be enhanced by changes to the redevelopment plan, which impinged on views of the original building.
Mr MacRae said that it was too soon to indicate whether those proposals, prepared with the involvement of an architect specialising in 1930s design, were practical or not but he described them as ‘not a no’.
