Green controlled growth at London Luton Airport
The aviation sector is estimated to contribute at least £22bn to UK GDP each year and provides direct employment for hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Many of these jobs are secure and well-paid, with most being undertaken by unionised people across the country whose positions we cannot afford to lose.
The physical hubs for all this economic activity are airports – they’re the centrepiece needed for job creation in the aviation sector, and airport expansion will be key to further increasing aviation’s positive impact on the economy and facilitating economic growth.
London Luton Airport already provides 12,100 jobs, a 9 per cent increase on 2023 and 84 per cent of all these jobs are full-time. We have plans to expand the airport from 19 million passengers per annum (mppa) to 32 mppa by the early 2040s. If approved, expanding the airport would add up to 11,000 new, high-quality, and well-paid jobs at the airport and in the supply chain across the region that pay, on average, 34% higher than the national average wage.
However, job creation and airport expansion cannot be at the expense of the environment which is why we’ve taken a balanced approach in our proposal. Establishing a framework that allows airports to expand in the least environmentally impactful way possible is absolutely crucial.
The government recently said it is committed to securing the long-term future of the aviation sector in the UK while protecting environmental obligations. If the Government approves our application to expand London Luton Airport, we have committed to introducing a unique and ground-breaking initiative called the Green Controlled Growth framework (GCG).
GCG is a new, environmentally-focused approach to managing growth at the airport, and is one of the most far-reaching commitments to the sustainable operation of an airport ever to be introduced in the UK.
It introduces maximum limits for the airport’s noise, greenhouse gases, air quality and surface access impacts. These are the areas in which, as the airport grows over time, there is most scope for impacts to increase in line with growth.
Crucially, these environmental limits would be governed by a new independent body with the ability to call a halt to growth if the airport does not keep to the limits. This process will be legally binding on the airport.
GCG would include ongoing monitoring of these impacts and regular public reporting – growth is slowed and ‘controlled’ as impacts get closer to the environmental limits. If monitoring were to suggest at any point that the limits were in danger of being breached, then plans must set out how that breach would be avoided.
Importantly, our plans for expansion do not require a second runway, and the work will take place in phases over almost two decades. We will deliver additional terminal capacity in-line with growing passenger demand that will come online as capacity approaches maximum, and the airport also has targets to be carbon neutral by 2030 and net zero for ground operations by 2040.
The airport already has a strong track record, having reduced its carbon emissions between 2016 and 2019 by 30 per cent, despite a 23 per cent increase in passenger numbers. The Luton DART, which opened last year, is evidence of our commitment. The £300 million cable shuttle link connects Luton Parkway railway station to the airport, replacing a transfer diesel bus service that travels two miles in under four minutes.
Airport expansion will significantly improve the economic outlook for the UK, and it does not need to be in tension with net zero targets. It will create secure, well-paid jobs for an array of people, drive economic growth, and it is perfectly viable for airports to grow and tackle carbon emissions in tandem.
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