AIRPORTS Fiji Limited (AFL) plans to upgrade the departure and arrival areas of the Nadi International Airport as part of its new design.
The design also caters for plans by AFL to increase retail space for businesses in these areas.
While announcing details of the planned upgrade on Saturday, AFL chief executive officer Tony Gollin said the proposal was to change the direction of the departure area.
"We want to increase the area of the ground floor for areas that is available for immigration and security screening to allow for passenger growth," he said.
Mr Gollin said the departure area would receive a total makeover with future travellers expected to wait for their flights out of the country on a much wider and spacious second floor.
"Upstairs we'll have duty-free, more specialist retail and more food and beverages.
"We want to design it in a way that we get much better use of the space and of the view of the Nadi bay area," he said.
Mr Gollin said the changes would allow for those leaving the country to have more access to retailers at the airport.
"We'll also be changing some of the gate configurations and the crew access to retail. That basically is the departure side of the journey.
"One of the main reasons of putting all of these things upstairs is because the best time for people to purchase things is when they finish the mandatory processing they can go upstairs and see the options of food and beverages that are available," he said.
Minister for Aviation Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said in a bid to streamline the airport, the expansion would essentially be carried out among the retail space.
"All the retail space will be in fact all upstairs. There's also some expansion expected in the arrival area," he said.
"As you are all aware government has put in place the Airports Modernisation Decree to address a number of fundamental problems regarding both the concessions that were in existence and also in terms of improvements to the airport."
"There's a very strict timeline that has been put in place. Everything needs to be done essentially within the one year as part of the core objectives of the decree and the board and the management have been working quite tirelessly with the various stakeholders including the various experts regarding the modernisation of the airport," said Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
He said the costs of the new designs were yet to be finalised.