Birmingham Airport and HS2 are in discussions over plans that could see a terminal built directly into the new interchange station on the outskirts of the city.

The airport’s head of planning, development and infrastructure Robert Eaton said it was currently in discussions with HS2 over a number of options for its 2030 masterplan, and one of those being closely considered would see an airport terminal built within the station.

Speaking at NCE’s Airport design and development event on Thursday, Mr Eaton said: “One option is to provide facilities in the HS2 terminal such as bag drop and things like that and we have asked HS2 to factor that into their design.

“But we could also take that a step further and build the whole terminal over there, so you step off the HS2 train and you are in the terminal.

“We are looking at that at the moment; it could be a single terminal or a dual terminal, we are looking at all those options.”

The revelations come ahead of Birmingham publishing a masterplan that will outline the airport’s development pipeline for the coming decade. The masterplan is expected to be published later this year.

Birmingham is currently the only airport set to be directly connected to HS2 after plans to add a spur line to Heathrow from phase one of the high-speed route were dropped in 2015.

As part of the plan, Birmingham has already proposed the construction of a “people mover” linking the station directly to the airport, which is just over 2 km away from the interchange station.

Current estimates from the airport predict that it could take around 25 minutes to travel from Birmingham Interchange to the airport, despite it only taking 31 minutes to get to Birmingham Interchange from Old Oak Common in west London.

Mr Eaton said construction of the ”people mover” could begin in the next few years as part of plans reduce the time travelling between airport and station, stating that a decision on what option will be included in the masterplan could be finalised in the coming months.

Last month, HS2 launched bidding for the multi-million-pound contracts for the design of its four rail stations.

Firms are currently bidding for the £23m design contract for the HS2 Birmingham Interchange station, as well as the £30m Birmingham Curzon Street deal.

Also up for grabs are the £70m Old Oak Common station design and the £98m design for redeveloping Euston station.

Birmingham is currently embarking on a £100m improvement plan at the airport which will include upgrading baggage systems and the creation of two new car parks.

Mr Eaton said the airport was currently looking at how the capital works could be delivered and said that a framework system of procurement was probably the most likely route, with procurement possibly starting as early as the end of this year.

HS2 declined to comment due to purdah restrictions.

