Airport News

The owners and operators of London Luton Airport have announced they are in ‘absolute agreement’ over proposals to expand the airport to accommodate 18 million passengers annually.

According to BBC News, operator London Luton Airport Operations Limited (LLAOL) has now submitted a revised masterplan that is in line with the proposal produced by Luton Borough Council in January 2012.

LLAOL previously disagreed with council-owned London Luton Airport Limited (LLAL)’s prediction that the airport could handle 18 million passengers a year, saying 15 million was more realistic. However, the two sides agreed to merge their plans in June in order to move forward and LLAOL said it now agreed with LLAL that the airport could cope with 18 million passengers after a review of feedback and "a process of detailed modelling and environmental assessment".

Managing director Glyn Jones said, "It's a relatively small change to what we were putting forward before but an important one because it is based on absolute agreement."

He told BBC News it estimated an increase of aircraft movements from 112,000 in 2012 to around 157,000, and confirmed any increase in capacity would take place within the existing boundary and use the existing runway.

"We have a relatively small land-bank so we will be building a little bit more but we will really be re-using a lot of what we have already got," he added. He also said they would put forward a package of measures on noise management and will look at "road access issues".

According to BBC News, construction could begin in winter 2013 following approval of the planning application.