The expansion will increase the number of gates at the domestic terminal from 61 to 72, with the potential for a further six gates as demand increases.

Project manager Greg McKenzie said Brisbane Airport Corporation had called for expressions of interest to build the new Domestic Terminal Northern Regional Satellite.

Mr McKenzie said the 2000 square metre terminal would initially be a stand-alone building about 300 metres away from the existing terminal.

Eventually, it would be connected to the main terminal via a walkway to the Qantas "finger" at the northern end of the domestic terminal.

Work is expected to start in early 2016.

Mr McKenzie said the building would be the most significant addition to the domestic terminal since it opened in 1988.

The previous major expansion that Mr McKenzie oversaw, the terminal's centre finger, added just five gates in 2010.

"(The project) is not just the building," he said.

"We're expanding the northern apron, which is the aircraft taxi and parking areas around it, at the same time.

"That's the way we're getting the extra capacity."

The new terminal building came with a price tag of about $40 million, with the rest of the project's $100 million bill going towards the apron expansion.

Mr McKenzie said passengers would have to catch buses to the terminal satellite when it opened, which he expected would be about April 2017.

"Initially it's not going to have a walkway, it's going to be a bussing operation for the first six to 12 months because we have a lot of apron work going on around it," he said.

"…Towards the end of construction, we'll build a walkway that will connect to the Qantas satellite.

"So they'll be at the upper level of the domestic terminal, they'll walk out along the walkway, they'll get a lift down and then across the apron to the new building."

Although the new facility would be a common use building, with no airline having exclusive rights, Mr McKenzie said it was unlikely Virgin Australia would use the expansion.

Virgin Australia's gates are located at the southern end of the domestic terminal, so it is unlikely it would split its services across opposite ends of the building.

"It will technically be a common use building so it will be available to anybody, but the truth of the matter is it's probably going to be predominantly used for QantasLink," he said.

"But they don't have exclusive use over the whole thing."

Brisbane Airport's largest project, the $1.35 billion parallel runway, is expected to be completed by 2020.

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