Sustainable Development Plan

Setting out the context for the growth and sustainable development of London Stansted Airport

Sustainable development plan

MAG’s vision is to grow Stansted to better serve the region, including attracting a wider range of airlines and new routes, particularly to the USA and Middle East – this is vital to sustain prosperity and create jobs and investment in our region. The plan looks at ways to make efficient use of our current single runway, develop and improve surface access links and strengthen our community engagement programme while at the same time being mindful of the environmental impacts, ensuring we strike the right balance between growth and sustainability.

A draft version of our Sustainable Development Plan was released and consulted on widely over Autumn/Winter 2014. We have now produced a final version of this plan, which is split into 5 separate documents. The final versions of these are available to download by clicking the following links:

Download the 2015 plan

The plan is in five parts. Click to download each one as a PDF.

Summary

Economy and Surface Access

Land Use

Community

Environment

Consultation

We consulted over a draft version of this plan in 2014, talking to local people, businesses, local authorities, MPs and other bodies or those who expressed interest. We also held 10 events in the local area which were open to the public to find out more, ask questions to members of airport staff and discuss our draft version of the plan in further detail.

We were pleased to receive feedback via both email, written letters and our ipad surveys which have helped us to shape and improve our draft plan, in order to now share our final version.

If you have any questions relating to our Sustainable Development Plan, please send your enquiry to developmentplan@stanstedairport.com.

Planning for the future

MAG must plan for the future, ensuring passengers and businesses have the transport infrastructure and connectivity to compete and grow – including making the most of the infrastructure we already have on site.

We believe growth to 40-45 million passengers on the single runway can be achieved within the current boundary, without major changes to our infrastructure and within existing environmental limits, supporting the UK’s growth ambitions in the most cost effective and sustainable way possible.

Our aims and targets include:

  • Making the most effective use of our runway and infrastructure. This will help provide more choice and range of destinations and airlines we offer, including long-haul services;

  • Maximising the use of our land providing a safe, efficient and commercial operation to allow our business and those of our tenants and partners to grow. This will include the creation of new passenger and airside facilities;

  • Unlocking economic growth and create more jobs in our region - making the best use of the single runway has the potential to generate £4.6bn in GVA and create an extra 10,000 jobs on-site;

  • Continuing to support local business through our Meet the Buyers events. By 2017, we hope to generate over £2m worth of new contracts for local businesses;

  • Maintaining our number one position for public transport usage and champion initiatives to improve rail links to London and Cambridge, increase bus connectivity and encourage more of our staff to choose sustainable ways to get to work;

  • Committing to invest in energy efficient and low carbon technologies with the aim for airport operations to become carbon neutral;

  • Seeking to minimise the impact of all aspects of noise with a target to tighten our noise penalty limits;

  • Reduce, reuse, recycle – target to recycle 70% of waste by 2020 with zero landfill waste;

  • Establishing a new on-site education centre providing a flexible and inspirational learning environment to inspire the workforce of tomorrow;

  • Continuing to improve the Stansted Airport Employment and Skills Academy, helping to provide training and jobs for local people with an aim to get 550 local people into work a year whilst increasing apprenticeship opportunities for young people.

Plane taking off

Community relations

Find out more about community relations at London Stansted Airport

Men shaking hands

Responsible business

Find out more about our approach to responsible business