Aberdeen Airport is set to receive a £13 million upgrade.

The plan will involve improving the site's capacity, coping with passenger growth up to 2026, as it expects volumes to rise more than 20 per cent over the next six years alone.

However, the work itself focuses solely on the terminal building, adding new shops and facilities, suggesting any actual increase in demand can be met by the current runway.

It could, for instance, use a mixed mode set-up, a method applied by Heathrow to operate both arrivals and departures simultaneously on one runway, rather than direct expansion.

Airport managing director Carol Benzie said: "This terminal was opened in 1977 and what we are about to embark upon is the biggest change since that time."

In October, 327,800 passengers passed through the airport, a year-on-year increase of 3.8 per cent. However, its biggest upturn one word was not in traditional fixed-wing operations, which grew by 2.8 per cent, but in its helicopter services, up 10.3 per cent.

Work will begin next year, with a completion date in 2017.