Making best use of Stansted's existing runway

• Application seeks to raise Stansted passenger number limit to 35m a year
• Stansted currently capped at 25m passengers a year on existing runway
• Following public inquiry in 2007, Government decision expected in autumn 2008
• Plans for a second runway will be heard at a separate inquiry in 2009

The challenge of runway capacity
In 2003 the Government published its White Paper – The Future of Air Transport – which set a clear policy framework for air transport in the UK until 2030.

This identified Stansted as the location for the first of two new full-length runways to be built in the South East in over 50 years, the second being at Heathrow subject to environmental conditions being met. The White Paper also stated that, as a starting point, all airports, including Stansted, must make best use of their existing airport capacity, which means making best use of our existing single runway.

Making best use of existing runway
Stansted now serves over 23 million passengers per year, the current planning permission for Stansted caps passenger numbers at 25 million per year. The Generation 1 application therefore seeks to;

• Raise the planning condition limiting passengers numbers from 25 million to 35 million per year.
• Increase ATMs (Air Transport Movements) from 241,000 to 264,000 a year.

We predict that approximately 35 million passengers will be using the airport by 2014/15.

A second runway
The existing runway application is about making better use of our existing runway, not about our plans for a second runway at Stansted. For further information about our second runway plans please look at the second runway section of this website.