The UK government has approved an expansion plan for London’s Luton Airport, which will raise the airports annual passenger capacity by 14 million, allowing the airport to accommodate up to 32 million passengers per year.
The decision was announced by UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, despite a recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate that she reject it based on environmental concerns.
This expansion plan will feature new terminal capacity, additional taxiways, transport infrastructure, the construction of landside support buildings and surface access adjustments.
Alberto Martin, chief executive officer at London Luton Airport said: “We welcome today’s approval from (UK) government, which now provides Luton with a generational opportunity to transform the town and our region's economy.”
Luton Airport expects this expansion to create up to 11 thousand new jobs, while unlocking an additional £1.5bn ($1.97bn) in the economy every year.
In response to this government approval, the environmental campaign group Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), stated that the UK government has made an "irresponsible and unjustifiable decision”, by letting UK airports expand beyond what is “environmentally safe”.
“There is currently no credible pathway to decarbonise flying in the near-term," commented Tim Johnson, director of AEF. “Allowing further expansion before we have an answer on how to reduce the sector’s climate impacts is putting the cart before the horse.”
He noted that any expansion at this time is a “huge environmental gamble”, with uncertain economic prospects, exposing many local residents around the airport to higher levels of noise and air pollution.
AEF said it has advised the UK government pauses all consideration of airport expansion until the UK aviation industry can prove that it is decarbonising at a rate that makes expansion safe and addresses local noise and pollution concerns.
The application for this expansion was originally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration by the airport on February 27, 2023, and accepted for examination on 27 March 2023.
During 2024, Luton was the UK's 5th busiest airport, with 16.9 million passengers travelling on 132,000 flights.