A KEY part of the Stansted Airport upgrade has been placed on hold to allow for a full review of the plans.

The new £150m arrivals terminal was due to open some point next year but bosses now say they will delay the scheme to allow them to take a fresh look at the original designs and transformation programme.

The new terminal forms part of a £600m upgrade to the airport which will create room for extra passengers and improve the existing facilities.

Stansted insists the delay to the scheme will not affect the rest of the project and complex enabling works for the new terminal will continue as planned.

A spokesman said: "We are currently reviewing the original transformation programme proposals and design options. This often happens on major construction projects whether they be shopping centres, rail infrastructure or airports - it’s over three years since the programme began and much has changed in the world since then.

"This year we’ve consulted with our airlines and other on-airport business partners to take on board their views of the programme but much of the update review focus has also come from our own thinking.

"So, with this in mind, we are currently looking at further design options and in particular the final design of the arrivals terminal building, to ensure that all our planned infrastructure will not only be available when we all need it most but also that it will be suitably ‘future-proofed’ and allows us to respond to fluctuating travel, social and economic trends.

"As you can imagine, there is a large number of variables which will influence this work, not least the global and UK economic picture but also political landscape at a national and local level.

"We hope to share the outputs of the design development and evolution of this project with airport partners in the first half of 2020."

Stansted has been unable to confirm if there will be a revised opening date for its new arrivals terminal.

The airport says it has spent £150m on improvements this year.

A new 3,000 space multi-storey car park opened in the autumn while work on eight new aircraft parking stands, new check-in zones and security area has also been completed.