The airport has released an ambitious 15-year masterplan
18:28, 26 Jun 2025Updated 18:36, 26 Jun 2025
A general view of Bristol Airport (file image)(Image: Bristol Post)
Bristol Airport has published its final master plan for development for the next 15 years – which it says could add £3 billion per year to the West’s economy.
But the proposals, which would see passenger numbers potentially increase to 15 million per year and see an additional 8,000 car parking spaces built at the airport, will be hugely controversial.
The airport’s previous round of expansion saw protracted legal and planning battles, accompanied by massive protests, largely on climate change grounds.
Swedish environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg led a high-profile march of 15,000 people against those earlier proposals in 2020.
However those proposals were ultimately allowed after an appeal and the Labour government is seen as being in favour of airport expansion to help fuel economic growth.
The airport has been consulting on its latest master plan since November and has published a 94-page document outlining its proposals for growth to 2040, including the launch of direct flights to the US and Middle East.
It said more than 2,000 people submitted opinions during the consultation period.
Dave Lees, CEO of Bristol Airport, said: “We’re enormously pleased with the level of response to our draft master plan consultation and grateful for everyone who took the time to share their views.
“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.”
Today, approximately 10 million passengers per year fly through Bristol and it has permission in place already to increase that to 12 million.
The airport, which Australian financial giant Macquarie is reportedly in the process of acquiring from the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, has recently seen significant building on site to improve the security area and develop multi-storey car parks and a public transport hub that is due to open this summer.
It is eyeing future growth though and believes demand will reach 15 million passengers per year by 2036.
The master plan includes proposals to:
* Increase passenger numbers from today’s 10 million per year to 15 million
* Increase the number of flights from 85,990 to 100,000 per year
* Introduce a limited number of direct flights to the Middle East and the east coast of the United States
* Increase the number of night flights from 4,000 per year to 5,000 per year
* Increase the number of parking spaces (its biggest revenue earner – £67m in 2023) from 18,000 to 26,000
The airport says that the expansion would create approximately 1,000 new jobs on the site – with it anticipating most staff coming from South Bristol and Weston-super-Mare.
It anticipates lodging a formal planning application with North Somerset Council before the end of the year.
Neighbouring Bath and North East Somerset Council has already indicated its likely opposition to expansion..
The full master plan is available to read on the airport’s website.