A NUMBER of high street retailers will be opening their doors to passengers at Bristol Airport when the expansion of its eastern terminal is completed next month.

The £8.6million project is the first major expansion of the terminal building since it opened in 2000 and will open to passengers in early July.

The new additions to the airport’s shopping range will include leading sports retailer JD Sports and fashion outlet Accessorize.

Existing stores Superdrug, WHSmith and The Bookshop at WHSmith will meanwhile move to larger, improved units in the departure lounge.

Kate Ridgers, head of commercial development at Bristol Airport, said: “We are excited about these new additions to the departure lounge, and we hope passengers will be too.

“It is not only about new brands at the airport, as Superdrug and WHSmith will have much-needed enlarged shops to provide passengers with last minute travel essentials.

“There are now even more reasons to arrive early at the airport this summer, whether you want to do some last minute holiday shopping or get your trip off to a relaxing start over a meal or drink in one of our bars, cafés or restaurants.”

As well as creating space for hundreds of additional seats in the departure lounge, the extension will allocate more than 1,000 square metres for retail and catering units, which are set to be occupied by a range of new and existing brands.

The terminal extension is a major component of development plans to enhance facilities to enable the airport to handle 10 million passengers per year.

Other developments underway include improvements to car parks and transport and the construction of a 201-room Hampton by Hilton hotel, which is set to be completed next spring.

A total of 6.3 million passengers used Bristol Airport last year and continued growth is forecast throughout 2015.

Bmi Regional has meanwhile announced it will start its route to Nantes from July 4.