Why Regional Airports Could Become the UK’s Next Data Centre Locations

Gebler Tooth Architects

Sep 3

7 min read

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services is increasing demand for data centre capacity across the UK. Yet delivering the infrastructure required to support this growth is becoming increasingly difficult.

Data centres need substantial electrical capacity, high-speed fibre connectivity, secure and resilient sites, effective cooling solutions and sufficient land for large buildings and supporting plant. Identifying locations where these requirements can be brought together, without competing with housing or placing further pressure on constrained urban areas, is a significant challenge.

Regional airports could provide part of the solution.

Many already possess the infrastructure, land, connectivity and security that data centre operators require. They may also contain underused hangars, warehouses and operational buildings that could be refurbished and adapted for new uses.

This creates a potentially compelling business case. Airports can provide a platform for data centre development, while data centres can generate new investment, support infrastructure improvements and potentially return surplus heat to terminals and other buildings across the airport campus.

Airports are established infrastructure hubs

Regional airports should not be viewed simply as terminals and runways. They are complex infrastructure environments that bring together power, communications, transport, security, logistics and employment.

Even comparatively small airports depend on resilient electrical supplies, controlled access, emergency planning, telecommunications and strategic road connections. Many also sit within larger landholdings containing business parks, cargo facilities, hangars, hotels, offices and development plots.

These characteristics align closely with several of the requirements of data centre operators.

Potential advantages include:

Large areas of land under coordinated ownership
Existing electrical and telecommunications infrastructure
Access to strategic road networks
Controlled and secure operational environments
Established servicing, drainage and emergency-response arrangements
Separation from densely populated residential areas
Space for backup power, cooling and energy infrastructure
Opportunities for phased campus expansion

Not every airport will be suitable. Available grid capacity, fibre connectivity, flood risk, water availability, planning policy, environmental constraints and aviation safeguarding must all be assessed on a site-by-site basis.

However, an airport may provide a stronger starting point than an entirely undeveloped site. Rather than building every supporting element from the ground up, a data centre can become part of an existing and strategically connected infrastructure ecosystem.

Creating a stronger commercial base for regional airports

The potential benefits are not limited to the data centre operator.

Regional airports often need to diversify their income and reduce their reliance on passenger traffic. Many are already developing complementary commercial activities, including logistics, aircraft maintenance, advanced manufacturing, research, training and general employment uses.

Data centres could form another part of this wider airport economy.

Long-term data centre occupation could generate income from land and property while supporting investment in utilities and digital infrastructure. Data centres could also create employment across construction, engineering, security, facilities management and technical operations.

New electrical substations, fibre connections, renewable energy generation, battery storage and associated infrastructure delivered for a data centre could potentially support the wider airport estate. This could strengthen the airport’s ability to attract other businesses and facilitate future commercial development.

A data centre should therefore be considered as more than a tenant occupying an isolated parcel of airport land. It could become an anchor investment capable of supporting the airport’s wider development and commercial strategy.

Bringing redundant airport buildings back into use

Many regional airports contain older hangars, cargo sheds, warehouses and maintenance buildings that are no longer fully utilised or suited to modern aviation operations.

Subject to detailed technical assessment, some of these buildings could be refurbished and adapted for data centre use.

Hangars and warehouses often provide large, open floorplates, generous structural grids, high internal clearances and established service yards. They may also have secure compounds, heavy-duty floors and suitable access for installing, maintaining and replacing large items of technical equipment.

Reusing these buildings could reduce the amount of new construction required, retain more of the existing structure’s embodied carbon and bring redundant airport assets back into productive use. It may also preserve other areas of the airport for future aviation operations or purpose-built data centre expansion.

However, adaptation would involve much more than installing server racks within an existing building. The structure and envelope would need to satisfy the demanding operational and resilience requirements of a modern data centre.

A detailed feasibility study would need to consider:

Structural capacity and floor loading
Roof and external-envelope performance
Fire resistance and compartmentation
Physical security and operational separation
Internal environmental control
Electrical distribution and backup power
Cooling and heat-rejection infrastructure
Fibre connectivity and diverse routing
Equipment replacement and maintenance access
Flood risk, drainage and overall site resilience

In some cases, the most effective approach may be to retain the existing structural frame and upgrade the external envelope, while constructing secure and environmentally controlled data halls within it. Elsewhere, a hybrid solution could combine a refurbished hangar or warehouse with new energy centres, plant compounds and purpose-built technical buildings.

The objective should be to establish whether the existing asset can be transformed into a technically resilient and commercially viable facility, not to force a data centre into an unsuitable building simply because it is available.

How data centres could give something back

Alongside the commercial opportunity, Gebler Tooth and our wider team of MEP experts are exploring how data centres located at airports could provide a direct environmental and operational benefit to their hosts.

One potential give-back strategy is the recovery and reuse of heat generated by the data centre.

Servers produce substantial quantities of heat while operating. This heat must be removed continuously to maintain safe and reliable internal conditions. In a conventional system, much of this energy is ultimately rejected into the external environment.

However, where the data centre and airport are planned as parts of an integrated energy system, some of this heat could potentially be captured and reused.

Rather than warmed water flowing directly from the servers into the airport terminal, the process would use a series of separate and controlled water circuits. Heat would be transferred safely between these systems through heat exchangers.

A liquid-based cooling system could collect heat from the data halls and transfer it into a water loop. Because data centre heat is generally available at a relatively low temperature, an industrial heat pump would normally be required to increase the temperature to a level suitable for heating buildings or producing hot water.

The upgraded heat could then be distributed around the airport through an insulated heat network.

Where could the recovered heat be used?

Airports may be particularly well suited to this arrangement because they contain several different buildings with regular heating and hot-water requirements.

Depending on the scale of the data centre, the temperature of the recovered heat and the airport’s energy demands, potential uses could include:

Heating passenger terminals and departure lounges
Preheating domestic hot water
Heating airport offices and operational buildings
Supplying airport hotels and hospitality facilities
Heating hangars, workshops and maintenance buildings
Supporting nearby business parks or logistics facilities
Supplying future commercial or residential development

The system could reduce the amount of energy the airport needs to purchase or generate for heating. It could also improve the overall utilisation of the energy entering the data centre by converting an operational by-product into a valuable local resource.

Government-supported projects are already demonstrating how this principle could work. At Old Oak and Park Royal in London, a planned heat network will recover waste heat from data centres to serve thousands of homes and commercial buildings. The same principle could potentially be adapted to an airport environment, subject to technical feasibility and a viable commercial model. UK Government

What needs to be investigated?

Heat reuse is a promising opportunity, but it is not an automatic outcome of locating a data centre beside an airport.

Gebler Tooth and our wider team of MEP experts are looking at the practical questions that would determine whether the concept is technically, environmentally and commercially viable.

These include:

How much recoverable heat would the data centre generate?
At what temperature would the heat be available?
How closely would airport demand align with continuous data centre operation?
What type of cooling system would maximise heat-recovery potential?
Where should heat exchangers, heat pumps and thermal storage be located?
What new heat-distribution infrastructure would be required?
Could existing airport heating systems accept lower-temperature heat?
How would the system operate during periods of reduced demand?
Who would own, operate and maintain the shared infrastructure?
How would the environmental and financial benefits be distributed?

The relationship between supply and demand is particularly important. A data centre may generate heat continuously throughout the year, while an airport’s heating requirements will vary between seasons. Thermal storage, alternative heat users and carefully planned backup systems may therefore be needed to create a resilient and efficient network.

These issues should be considered at the earliest stages of the project. Retrofitting a heat-recovery network after the data centre has been designed or constructed is likely to be more complicated, disruptive and expensive.

Planning the airport and data centre together

The strongest business case emerges when the airport and data centre are planned as parts of one connected infrastructure strategy.

This means considering the data centre’s power, fibre, cooling, security, transport and heat-recovery requirements alongside the airport’s operational needs and long-term estate plan.

Early masterplanning can identify the most appropriate development plots, buildings suitable for reuse, secure access arrangements and routes for new utilities. It can also safeguard space for energy centres, substations, cooling equipment, thermal storage and heat-network connections.

A phased strategy could allow an initial data centre or converted building to establish the required infrastructure, with additional data halls, renewable generation and heat users added as demand grows.

Gebler Tooth can bring together airport masterplanning, architectural design and the intelligent reuse of existing buildings, while our wider team of MEP experts investigates the supporting electrical, cooling and heat-recovery systems. Considering these disciplines together from the outset is essential to determining whether a viable shared infrastructure model can be created.

An opportunity for mutual benefit

Regional airports may offer many of the characteristics required to support the UK’s next generation of data centres: land, security, accessibility, infrastructure and opportunities for phased expansion.

In return, data centres could support airport investment, generate reliable commercial income, bring redundant buildings back into use and strengthen local digital and energy infrastructure.

The potential reuse of server heat adds another dimension to this relationship. If designed correctly, a data centre could contribute more than rent and infrastructure investment—it could potentially help provide lower-carbon heating to the terminal, airport buildings and surrounding development.

Gebler Tooth, working alongside our wider team of MEP experts, is exploring how architectural design, building services engineering, energy planning and airport masterplanning can bring these elements together.

The opportunity is not simply to place data centres on airport land. It is to create integrated digital and energy campuses in which airports and data centres support one another—delivering resilient infrastructure, commercial value and measurable benefits for their surrounding regions.