Bristol airport bids to raise capacity cap to handle 15m passengers a year

Bristol airport aims to apply for planning permission to raise its capacity cap to handle 15 million passengers a year by 2036.

 

The disclosure came as the west country airport published its final master plan to 2040 following “comprehensive” local consultation.

 

The proposals would enable the airport to provide more connections and serve new destinations, including a “limited number” of long-haul flights to the US east coast and Middle East.

 

The document sets out a long-term vision of how the airport will grow from current capacity of 10 million to 15 million to meet the demand to travel to and from the region. 

 

A planning application to include all the necessary infrastructure to achieve this will be submitted to North Somerset Council later this year. 

 

The plans would see aircraft movements increase from 85,990 to 100,000 a year “in the longer” term to meet demand for air travel. 

 

This would result in 35 extra aircraft movements on a busy day in peak periods. 

 

While night flying restrictions would remain, the airport is proposing to increase night flights by 1,000 a year - an average of four per night in the busiest time of the year. 

 

More than 115 destinations are currently served from Bristol by 14 airlines, including the entry of Jet2 in 2019.

 

The proposals to provide new destinations would reduce journeys made to London airports, which 10 million passengers make from the southwest and South Wales every year. 

 

Planning permission was previously obtained to raise capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers a year, following a Planning Inspectorate decision in 2022. Current forecasts indicate that 12 million people a year will be using the airport by 2027-28.

 

A 10-week consultation on the master plan starting last November, seeking opinions from local communities, customers, businesses, and the airport stakeholders. 

 

More than 19,000 people viewed the consultation material online and over 200 people attended consultation events, with almost 2,400 responses in writing. 

 

Airport chief executive Dave Lees said: “Our team has carefully studied all the responses and are using them to shape our detailed proposals before submitting a planning application. 

 

“We’re continuing to see strong demand to travel to and from our region, with business travel surprisingly holding up since the pandemic and people wanting to connect with friends and family across Europe.  

 

“More than 10 million people from our catchment continue to travel to fly from Heathrow and London airports every year. 

 

“We’re confident we can capture a section of that demand and boost the economy of our region by providing direct connections to North America and the Middle East. 

 

“We recognise the concerns about carbon emissions resulting from airport growth and the implications for climate change. 

 

“So, we’re bringing forward proposals for what we consider to be responsible growth, which is both within the current UK carbon budgets required to meet net zero for all emissions by 2050, and with measures to achieve net zero airport operations by 2030. 

 

"Meanwhile, we are also committed to working with partners in our region to decarbonise aviation.”