PORTADOWN construction firm JH Turkington has revived a bid to develop a new hotel at Belfast International Airport.
The 81-bedroom venture was originally launched in 2017 by Moorefield Hospitality Ltd and Premier Inn.
Announced as a £5.5 million project, it secured planning approval in 2020.
The proposal centres on a 20-acre site on the Antrim Road, located close to the Maldron Hotel and Belfast International Airport’s long stay car park.
Moorefield Hospitality was subsequently acquired by Gary Turkington and Mark Dundas, both senior directors in the Turkington operation.
The company last year rebranded as JHT Hotels.
Last month JH Turkington notified Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council of its intention to renew the planning bid for an 81-bed hotel on the site.
Turkington is now required to conduct community consultation events as part of the pre-application process ahead of submitting a full planning application.
An event has been scheduled for the Belfast International Services building on Airport Road on March 2.
The bid for the hotel comes as Ryanair prepares to return to Belfast International Airport with 16 routes planned this year.
The Irish carrier will base two new aircraft at the Aldergrove terminal, which will operate around 140 weekly flights.
Belfast International Airport has already forecast that passenger numbers in 2023 will match and even exceed the record levels from 2019, when 6.28 million people passed through the terminal.
JH Turkington has traded in Co Armagh since 1951. Its latest accounts filed last year recorded a turnover of £32.2m in the year to December 2021, 70 per cent up on 2020.
