Luton Airport ‘must expand or stagnate’
22.01.12
Capacity at Luton Airport has to be expanded so that it does not ‘stagnate’ while demand grows, Dunstable Today reports a council leader said. Plans to double the number of passengers using the airport were announced last week, with a planning application likely to be lodged in April.
London Luton Airport Limited (LLAL), the council owned company that owns the airport, wants capacity increased from 11.5 million passengers a year now to 18 million , with the possibility of growth to 30 million in the future, using the existing single runway. The planned growth will happen within the current airport ‘footprint’, with new taxiways to the runway, a new ‘pier’ along which passengers board planes and multi-storey car parking included within the plans.
Steve Heappey, director of customer and corporate services at Luton Borough Council, said new road layout and more security gates would be created to resolve the ‘shocking’ queues currently experienced by passengers getting to and through the airport. Although the airport had been extremely successful over the past decade, there was a danger that airlines would look elsewhere to grow their flight programmes if it could not accommodate them, he said.
LLAL has insisted that it wants the airport to be a ‘good neighbour’ and that all opinions will be listened to, and as far as possible incorporated into the plans. A four-week pre-application consultation will be launched at the beginning of February.
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