Bosses at Bristol Airport have welcomed a court decision to uphold planning permission to increase passenger capacity by two million a year. Action group Bristol Airport Action Network (BANN) has launched a statutory appeal against the plans for expansion.
The airport's plans are for the number of passengers who use the airport every year to increase from 10 million to 12 million, but campaigners say that will have disastrous consequences for local people and the environment. The most recently available figures for Cardiff Airport show that in the year to October, 2022, the Welsh airport handled 811,000 passengers.
The plans include major investment in the terminal building, which is popular with passengers from Wales, parking facilities, and public transport links.
Read more: 'Cardiff Airport probably won't exist in five years', claims former owner Sir Stanley Thomas
A hearing took place at the Bristol Civic Justice Centre over two days in November last year, and the decision was announced on Tuesday (January 31).
Outside the court, campaigners drenched themselves with what looked like fake blood after a judge rejected the appeal.
Dave Lees, CEO of Bristol Airport, said: “Bristol Airport welcomes the High Court Judge’s decision to dismiss the claim and uphold the planning permission to increase Bristol Airport’s capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers per annum.
"The decision is excellent news for our region’s economy, allowing us to create up to 5,000 new jobs, deliver more international destinations for the South West and South Wales, and invest hundreds of millions of pounds improving the customer experience.
"We will do this while working towards our ambitious target of net zero carbon operations by 2030 and we look forward to working with stakeholders and the community to deliver our vision to be everyone’s favourite airport."
The airport says that the expanded capacity will add 800 jobs at Bristol Airport and up to a further 5,000 regionally, adding an estimated £430 million to the south west’s economy.
The Green Party co-leader, and Councillor for Clifton Down told Bristol Live: "This is a devastating outcome. Bristol airport’s unnecessary expansion will mean thousands of extra flights which will produce one million tonnes of CO2 equivalents every year, right at the point we most need to be reducing our emissions. Not to mention more traffic, noise and air pollution for local people, and it will risk harming endangered local species. All this in face of clear local opposition.
"To make matters worse, we know that up to 20 other regional airports have their own plans to expand and will have been watching this case very closely to see if the government will enforce its own climate policy. As the government’s own committee on climate change has pointed out, airport expansion is completely incompatible with our commitments on climate change.
"Unfortunately, both the Conservatives and Labour want to have their cake and eat it when it comes to climate change, claiming to support climate action but unwilling to accept any change from business as usual. In the real world there is no such thing as green aviation or carbon neutral jet fuel. We must listen to the scientists, not the airports."
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