Luton Airport is planning to increase its capacity to 18 million passengers a year and improve efficiency in a bid to capture some more of the demand at London’s airports, especially since the Government is adamant there won’t be a third runway built at Heathrow, and the Thames Estuary Airport is just a dream at the moment.
Luton is already a popular low-cost gateway for easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air and others, and it has also made a mark for itself as THE place for biz jets visiting London. On any given day there are up to a hundred biz jets present (admittedly a number are based, or are in for maintenance). So to expand on this seems a good idea.
This article states the airport will look to “consider where modifications are required to optimise capacity, including taxiways, aprons, piers and parking stands, the road network, car parking and the passenger terminal.”
It’s not clear when these changes will take place – presumably it will need a lot of planning. But I anticipate one of the improvements they’ll look to add is a full-length parallel taxiway for the runway, which will instantly increase the hourly capacity of the runway.
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I always get a little nervous when they talk about expanding an airport. We are a small and very condensed island, which is why the Heathrow expansion was worrying for so many people that lived nearby. We don’t have enough houses OR airport capacity… hmm