The hotel will be part of a "master plan" for redeveloping areas of Sydney airport that are currently under utilised and follows the announcement yesterday of a planned $9 million warehouse to be built by freight handlers DHL Express at the old Virgin domestic terminal. Sydney Airport Corp Ltd chief executive Max Moore-Wilton said yesterday he is looking at ways of bringing other businesses on to the Mascot site.
A blueprint for the airport's new business precinct will be submitted to the federal government within a month, he said.
Commercial offices and a fast-food outlet will also be built adjacent to the new hotel which is expected to open in mid-2004. The hotel will joins Formule 1 hotels at Melbourne Airport and Brisbane Airport, and the group is currently looking at sites near Perth Airport, it said.
Accor Asia Pacific chairman David Baffsky said there is good demand for budget accommodation from the 24 million passengers flying in and out of Sydney Airport each year.