Bristol airport has won permission to expand capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers a year by 2030.
The independent planning inspectorate granted the expansion plan on appeal after the airport previously had planning permission refused.
The expansion will include new upgrades to the terminal building, thousands more car parking spaces and public transport links.
The Welsh government objected to the scheme but the planning inspectorate’s report ruled that there is “no evidence to suggest that the development would have a significant adverse impact on Cardiff airport or on Wales”.
The report also said: “There was, and remains, a significant level of opposition to the proposed scheme. Objections were made at a local, regional, national and international level.
“We realise that our decision will come as a major disappointment to those people who spoke passionately in opposition to the proposal.
“In coming to our decision, the protests of individuals, communities, Members of Parliament, action groups, technical experts and others were fully heard and carefully considered.”
However, the inspectorate considered that “the benefits arising from the proposed development are as such that they would clearly outweigh the harm to Green Belt and the harm to noise, so as to amount to very special circumstances”.
The airport handled 8.9 million passengers in pre-pandemic 2019 and claims to have made one of the fastest recoveries from the crisis compared to others.
“Expanded capacity will allow the airport to explore new direct links to Europe and further afield, including the Middle East and North America,” the airport said.
“As well as providing economic links for our region, new routes will remove some of the 8 million car journeys made from the south-west to London airports that were made each year before the pandemic.”
The expansion will add 800 jobs at airport and “up to a further 5,000 regionally”.
Bristol airport said it had a plan in place to ensure that local residents are offered future job opportunities.
A fund will be created to help support those facing barriers to employment, transitioning people in low paid work into careers at the airport, with up to £300,000 being made available to kick-start training, work experience, apprenticeships and job readiness.
Chief executive Dave Lees added: “Bristol airport welcomes the decision of the planning inspectorate.
“The decision is excellent news for our region’s economy, allowing us to create thousands of new jobs in the years ahead and provide more choice for our customers, supporting inbound tourism, and reducing the millions of road journeys made to London airports each year.
“We will now push ahead with our multi-million-pound plans for net zero operations by 2030 and look forward to working with stakeholders and the community to deliver sustainable growth.”