Our
airport.
Driving economic and employment growth for future generations.
We are an airport owner entirely focused on supporting and improving people’s lives, and driving economic and employment growth, both in Luton and neighbouring communities. We see it as vital that we continue to plan for how prudent investment in the airport and our other assets can continue to benefit future generations. Right now, we are also supporting essential recovery from the impacts of coronavirus.
At the end of 2019, London Luton Airport was the UK’s fifth largest and one of its fastest growing airports – serving almost 18 million passengers per annum, supporting 27,000 jobs (over 12,000 from Luton) and delivering £1.8bn economic activity for UK GDP. It is widely recognised as the most significant and important player in Luton’s economy.
We now have plans for the long-term expansion of the airport up to 32 million passengers, which will create 12,000 new jobs and an additional £1.8bn in economic activity.
A further 5,200 jobs will come with the London Luton Airport Enterprise Zone at New Century Park and Bartlett Square.
Growing the airport will also act as a catalyst for Luton to become a leading hub for green technology, research and finance. It will therefore play a crucial role in delivering a more sustainable, prosperous and healthier future for the people of Luton – a very important example of levelling up.
To date, we have conducted three public consultations on our plans for expansion to 32 million passengers per annum (mppa). The third of these was a second statutory consultation which took place in early 2022 and sought feedback on updated proposals for a second terminal and associated infrastructure to deliver this passenger growth by the mid 2040s.
We are carefully considering all the feedback received, including for, our improved proposals to go even further to mitigate environmental issues, including noise, air quality and climate change. These reflect our determination to examine every aspect of sustainability and the impact of all aspect of the airport’s operation, to ensure we can meet our ambition to become a leader among the most sustainable airports in the UK. This includes developing a unique ground-breaking initiative, Green Controlled Growth, to ensure that the future growth we want will be green growth and, crucially, independently monitored.
We have been examining every aspect of sustainability and the impact of all aspect of the airport’s operation, to ensure we can meet our ambition to become a leader among the most sustainable airports in the UK. This includes developing a unique ground-breaking initiative, Green Controlled Growth, to ensure that the future growth we want will be green growth and, crucially, independently monitored.
We remain committed to engaging with our communities, and listening carefully to challenge and feedback to help us improve our plans, and will provide further updates before submitting our application to the Government for a Development Consent Order (DCO).
You can read about our proposals and all the documentation here.
Current development projects
Direct Air-Rail Transit (DART)
We are well advanced in our work building the pioneering new Luton DART, a Direct Air-Rail Transit system to service London Luton Airport.
Scheduled to become operational during 2022, the DART is being developed to encourage passengers to travel to and from our airport via a more sustainable, fast, reliable and energy-efficient means of transport.
The DART will be a fully-automated, cable-hauled system, approximately 2.1km in length, and will transport passengers between Luton Airport Parkway station and the terminal in under four minutes.
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New Century Park
New Century Park provides the location for an ambitious, well-designed, high-quality, high-yield and mixed-use development, incorporating business, commercial and light industrial units, aimed at bringing forward 3,200 jobs. Situated on the doorstep of the UK’s fifth largest airport with excellent transport links to London and the North, it will be a hub for job creation, as well as green technology and innovation.
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Bartlett Square
We have received planning permission for 2.5 acres of commercial development off Kimpton Road, next to Luton Airport Parkway station and the proposed Luton Direct-Air Rail Transit (Luton DART) scheme. This could bring around 2,000 jobs to the site.
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Morton House
Our new skills, innovation and business hub is expected to create over 200 new jobs for Luton. Luton Rising acquired a four-storey, 33,000 sq ft building in Kimpton Road from Vauxhall early last year and refurbishment works will soon be under way, ready for opening in summer 2022. Importantly, sustainability is built-in to the building’s design.
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