Column casings cleared for take-off at Manchester Airport’s T2
More than 100 column casings have been manufactured and installed by Pendock at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2, to conceal structural supports throughout check-in, security areas and departure lounges, while providing a durable and decorative finish to the interior.
Produced in a range of bespoke forms and sizes, the casings were engineered to meet the architectural and operational requirements of major airport environments, which included the successful completion of hazard mitigation and blast load testing.
The £750k supply and install package included circular, rectangular and extended lozenge-shaped casings, from the Pendock Radius range, with heights ranging from 2700mm to 7000mm.
Located across key passenger-facing areas of the terminal, both land side and air side, the casings enabled a consistent architectural finish to be achieved while enclosing structural steelwork within the building envelope.
Each casing was manufactured with a 2mm-thick 304 grade stainless steel lower section with a DP1 grit finish, and a 2mm-thick aluminium upper section finished in PPC RAL 9006. The material combination was selected to provide durability while maintaining a coordinated finish in key high footfall areas of the airport.
A key element in the project was ensuring that the final installation met the high standards demanded by the client and architects, which was undertaken by Pendock’s own contracting team, and underlines its capacity to deliver bespoke casing solutions for large-scale public infrastructure schemes.
The diverse column casing specification and dimensions, also illustrate the company’s ability to produce non-standard forms in a range of materials and finishes for applications where both appearance and robustness are critical.
The Pendock casings form part of one of the UK’s biggest airport upgrade programmes, as Manchester’s £1.3bn transformation has more than doubled Terminal 2’s footprint, delivering major new check-in, security, departures and arrivals facilities while improving the passenger experience.
The scale of the wider airport operation highlights the significance of the project. Manchester Airport handled 32.3 million passengers in the 12 months to March 2026, while Terminal 2 is now expected to serve around three quarters of all passengers using the airport.
Gavin Byram, Technical Project Manager at Pendock, said: “Along with the high standard of installation required, this project called for a wide range of bespoke casing forms, dimensions and finishes, all manufactured to suit the specific structural and architectural requirements of Terminal 2. As the installation included air side, as well as land side, we were able to meet the all the necessary contracting and compliance requirements within the supply and install package.”
He added: “By using a hybrid structure of 304 grade stainless steel with PPC-finished aluminium, we were able to deliver a solution that meets both the durability demands of a busy passenger environment and the visual standards expected in a major transport scheme.”
The installation forms part of the wider development of Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 facilities, where upgraded passenger spaces and pier infrastructure are central to the airport’s ongoing investment programme.
For architects and contractors specifying interior finishing packages, the scheme provides a key example of how bespoke column casings can be used to integrate structural elements into high-traffic transport environments without compromising the visual quality of the finished space.
