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 two public consultations on our plans for expansion to 32 million passengers per annum (mppa). The second of these was a statutory consultation which took place in autumn 2019 and sought feedback on how we proposed to deliver a second terminal and associated infrastructure to deliver this passenger growth by 2041.
Over the last 18 months, we have carefully considered all the feedback received. In particular, we heard the clear message that people wanted us to go even further to mitigate environmental issues, including noise, air quality and climate change.
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 also remain committed to engaging with our communities and listening carefully to challenge and feedback to help us improve our plans. We will undertake a further period of public consultation in early 2022, before submitting our application to the Government for a Development Consent Order (DCO). Details will be widely announced in due course.
You can read about our proposal and all the documentation here.