Bermuda’s new airport building will be raised by four feet to protect against storm surges, it was revealed yesterday.

The new terminal will also include an outdoor porch upstairs so travellers can eat and enjoy views over Ferry Reach before they board their planes.

Skyport, operators of the two-floor terminal, scheduled to open for business in July 2020, said the airport would be larger than the structure now visible from Kindley Field Road.

Moe Kamleh, project manager, said: “It doesn’t look that big of a construction site as you drive by, but as you stand inside you can see how large the site really is.”

The original building facing Castle Harbour is vulnerable to flooding during hurricanes and the new terminal at Stone Crusher Corner is still being raised with gravel and infill to keep it above the reach of surges.

Carrie Thatcher, commercial manager for the project, said the airport’s almost 10,000 sq ft of retail space was “still at the expression of interest stage”.

A bid to open a McDonald’s franchise at the airport created a political storm that led to the Prohibited Restaurants Act in 1996.

Ms Thatcher said that Skyport officials were “just seeing what’s in the local market”.

Roofing work at the terminal started this month and the installation of the building’s curtain walls is also scheduled to start soon.

The terminal building is expected to be watertight by next January.

The road to the new terminal will extend from the roundabout at the end of Longbird Bridge, with the entrance at what is now a bus terminal.

Aaron Adderley, president of Skyport, said the airport has 872,000 passengers a year.

He said it was “only a matter of time before we break the one million mark” as the island’s tourism market continues to pick up.