The new skylinks will create walkways to directly connect the terminal to existing satellite buildings that are home to the departure and arrival gates.

Their construction will enable Stansted’s track transit people mover system to be decommissioned, creating the space for the terminal building to be extended towards the airfield in later phases of the transformation work.

The skylinks will feature passenger travelators and allow for assistance buggies to take passengers with reduced mobility on the full journey between the terminal and the arrival and departure gates.

Work will begin later this summer with pre-assembly of skylink sections taking place ‘offsite’ in a vacant airport hangar on the northside of the airfield.

Once each section is completed it will be transported overnight from the construction hangar across the airfield on self-propelled modular transporters to minimise disruption to the airport’s operation.

Rob Stewart, MAG’s Capital Delivery Programme Director, said: “We’re delighted to continue our strong and successful partnership with Farrans at London Stansted having successfully worked with the team through the design, planning and enabling phases of the skylinks project, a vital component in our overall transformation programme.

“We now move to the construction phase of the work, where Farran’s expertise and experience of delivering airport projects in busy operational environments will be invaluable.”

Glenn Gilmore, Regional Director at Farrans, added: “Passengers arriving to London Stansted will already be able to see that we are mobilising our site in preparation for main works to begin during this exciting period of transformation for the airport.

“Construction in aviation environments comes with many unique challenges including making sure that our clients’ business operations can continue 24/7 with minimal disruption every day. We are specialists in managing these tricky interfaces with our extensive experience on site at numerous other UK airports.

“We will be collaborating closely with our clients and their operations team as we deliver this important project to support passenger number growth at London Stansted.”