Work on Canberra Airport's five-year, $480 million terminal transformation will be completed within weeks, chief executive officer Stephen Byron says.
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Installation of the final three aerobridges, which carry passengers from the terminal to their aircraft, begins on Monday.
Mr Byron told a 40-strong delegation of local Australian Property Institute members the facility is world class and positioned to deliver both budget domestic and quality international services to passengers in the near future.
He said the redevelopment, which began three metres beneath the concrete apron and saw all infrastructure elements renewed and replaced, had been planned to meet the needs of the next 30 to 40 years.
''The new facilities can handle up to eight million passengers [a year] in their current form,'' he said. ''They can be expanded to meet the needs of up to 12 million passengers.
''At the moment they are handling less than three [million].''
The new terminal, which incorporates art works, business space and lounges, is state of the art.
The public areas, which are kitted out with quality materials and finishes set off by panoramic multi-storey windows that offer incredible views of the runways to the north and the mountains to the south, are just the tip of the iceberg.
Unfurling, a sculpture by Andrew Rogers, dominates the junction of the two main concourses.
The baggage handling area, which is almost football-field sized, is criss-crossed by a network of conveyor belts and baggage escalators that move passengers' luggage wherever it needs to go.
There is a high level of automation and noise levels are remarkably low.
A little known fact is that when it comes to power, the airport usually runs off the grid.
Project manager and construction controller Ross Cleaver said no major airport could ever afford to lose electricity and, as a result, back-up generation capability was a mandatory requirement. Canberra Airport has taken this one step further, making a virtue of necessity and achieving substantial - but undisclosed - savings in the process.
It has two identical power generation complexes complete with their own cooling towers and heat reclamation technology, one at each end of the terminal building. Each of the generator areas has a diesel generator (the emergency backup) and a natural gas fuelled generator.
While the initial investment has run into millions of dollars, the savings make it worthwhile.
The gas generators are used to run the terminal, the airport lights and everything on the site during the peak daylight consumption times.
Power is drawn from the grid at night when ActewAGL's off peak rates are cheaper than gas generation.
Mr Byron said the final airport design had taken into account the trend towards ever more stringent security requirements with these, rather than the check-in areas, becoming the new bottlenecks.
The airport is currently working hard to secure an international carrier that would provide direct flights between Canberra and overseas destinations. ''We are the national capital and we deserve an international service,'' he said.
The international terminal space is ready and waiting; it can't be finished off and detailed until a service provider is identified however.
Mr Byron said the search is also on for a budget carrier, something he considers a necessity given Canberra Airport serves a catchment population of 900,000 people.
The facility was officially opened in March 2013.
