The expansion of Luton Airport has been approved by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.
She said she approved the airport’s expansion plan, which is for a new terminal rather than runway, despite the Planning Inspectorate recommending she reject it over environmental concerns.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves had been considering whether to expand the airport as a means to boost UK growth, following a similar decision to give the green light to a third runway at Heathrow at the beginning of the year.
Luton Airport, the UK’s fifth busiest airport last year, wants to increase its annual cap on passenger numbers from 18 million to 32 million by the mid-2040s, allowing its runway to be used for 77,000 more flights per year compared with last year.
In 2024, 16.9 million passengers travelled through the airport on 132,000 flights.
Ms Alexander approved the airport’s development consent order – which are used to obtain permission for nationally significant infrastructure projects – after being persuaded about the benefits expansion would bring to the UK economy.
A government source said: “The transport secretary has approved the expansion of Luton airport for its benefits to Luton and the wider UK economy.
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“The decision overturns the Planning Inspectorate’s recommendation for refusal.
“Expansion will deliver huge growth benefits for Luton with thousands of good, new jobs and a cash boost for the local council which owns the airport.
“This is the 14th development consent order approved by this Labour government, demonstrating we will stop at nothing to deliver economic growth and new infrastructure as part of our plan for change.”
Luton Rising, the local economic development company that owns the airport, said the project would support around 12,000 new jobs in the area and provide an additional economic benefit of £1.6bn per year.
Luton Rising Chair Paul Kehoe said the transport secretary’s decision “enables us to continue detailed planning”.
“The benefits are clear. At a new capacity of 32 million passengers per year, our scheme will deliver up to 11,000 new jobs, additional annual economic activity of up to £1.5bn, and up to an additional £13m every year for communities and good causes.
“By introducing maximum limits for the airport’s noise, operational greenhouse gas emissions, air quality and surface access impacts, we also believe that our green controlled growth framework represents the most far-reaching commitment to the sustainable operation of an airport ever put forward in the UK.”
Last month Ms Alexander also announced that she would support Gatwick Airport’s second runway plan if the project was adjusted.
The transport secretary has previously said the UK “can and must” boost aviation at the same time as protecting the environment, denying that the two are fundamentally incompatible.
However, the move risks reigniting divisions within cabinet over the government’s climate ambitions, which includes a 2050 target to reduce emissions by 100% compared with 1990 levels.
Environmental groups immediately criticised the decision as “misguided”.
Johann Beckford, senior policy adviser at Green Alliance, said the government’s decision was “a bad case of déjà vu”.
“Doubling passenger and flight numbers will increase emissions, air pollution and noise.
“This latest misguided project does more to undermine UK climate credibility than it does to expand the economy as, once again, the growth impact of the expansion is likely to be overstated.
“With almost 90% of Luton flights taken for leisure, this decision gives priority boarding to British tourists taking their money out of the country to spend abroad.”
And Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said the move would “encourage frequent flyers to fly even more frequently” and to spend their money abroad.
“70% of the UK’s flights are taken by just 15% of its population,” he said.
“Airport expansion will just encourage these frequent fliers to fly even more frequently, emitting more and more emissions.”
He added: “The UK already runs a £41bn tourism deficit; an expanded Luton will make this worse by encouraging even more people to take their disposal income out of the UK and spend it abroad.
“Approving the expansion of Gatwick and Luton airports will see emissions increase to such an extent that all the CO2 savings that the government hopes to achieve from its clean power plan would be wiped out by 2050
“The idea that sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) will offset these extra emissions is highly ambitious. Construction has not started on one of the five SAF plants that the government said would be under construction in 2025, while the Climate Change Committee expects the UK to fall short in its ambition for 22% of jet fuel to be replaced with SAFs by 2040.”
