AIRPORT bosses are spending £1.5million upgrading the toilets ahead of next Year's Commonwealth Games.

The move forms part of a £17million revamp at Glasgow Airport which will have thousands of athletes jetting in for the 2014 event.

The latest cash injection follows the £21m already spent on improvements over the last two years on top of the tens of milllions of pounds spent five years ago on the new Skyhub building, which houses a hi-tech security zone for passengers, as well as a retail and commercial area.

For next year's visitors there will be no red carpet for the elite sportsmen and women who fly in to pursue their quest for glory, but one of the first sights to greet them will be the international arrivals area bathed in the colours of champagne, white and blue.

Reconfigured and with a bigger concourse, the arrivals zone will be the door to a city which will be seen by a global television audience of a billion when the Games start.

As well as the spruced up toilets, money will also be spent upgrading inter-national arrivals and the main check-in hall with a feature Departures wall.

There will be new flooring in the domestic pier and new heating and ventilation systems in the airport's second terminal.

IMPROVEMENTS are also planned for the local roads network.

Airport chiefs want to do it in style, not just in readiness for the Games, but also for the golf fans and ex-pats who will jet into Scotland next year.

Managing director Amanda McMillan said: "Our £17m programme represents one of the most significant and compre-hensive upgrades to the main terminal since it first opened in 1966. The airport has changed dramatically since and this is our biggest single investment since the launch of our £31m Skyhub building in 2008.

"Next year represents a fantastic opportunity to showcase the best of Glas-gow and Scotland to the world and we are fully aware of the important role we have in helping deliver a successful Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and Year of Homecoming Scotland.

WE WILL extend the international arrivals concourse, add new seating and landscape a new space at the front of the building.

"Passengers will also notice changes in the check-in hall where hoardings are already in place and work on re-tiling the hall is under way."

The makeover comes four months after the airport unveiled a new logo which gives a twist to an instantly recognisable Scottish symbol - a thistle above the letter G with the strapline: "Proud to Serve Scotland."

Ms McMillan added: "We are sending out a clear message Glasgow Airport is committed to playing its part in the successful delivery of what will be the biggest sporting event in Scotland's history."

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk