Work has just commenced on a new 2,500 space multi-storey car park at Stansted Airport.

The £26m facility, which was designed by Pascal and Watson and will have five upper floors, and is expected to be completed by May 2019.

The airport’s owners, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), appointed BAM Construction to work on the new car park.

“This is a great opportunity for the region to demonstrate its ability to work on an airport scheme,” said BAM’s South East construction director Brian Connor.

Since the airport was taken over by MAG five years ago, passenger numbers have risen by nearly ten million - to 26 million a year in 2017. And the busy airport has applied for planning permission to raise it to 43 million.

Stansted airport has recently introduce new routes to Boston, New York and Toronto through Nordic operator Primera Air and to Dubai with Emirates Airline. Now, it is looking at opening up new routes to the Far East.

Stansted Airport officials have held recent talks with carriers in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong in a bid to advance a direct service from Stansted to China, which would be heavily underpinned by business traffic.

The Essex airport is bidding to leverage burgeoning business ties between the East of England and China, with companies along the London-Stansted-Cambridge corridor reporting record trade with China.

Stansted officials were in China and Hong Kong earlier this month to hold the latest in a series of talks, and are reported to be hopeful that the airport can deliver a direct service within two years.