The airport has announced plans to expand to serve 15 million passengers per year and to fly to farther destinations like America and the Middle East. That could see 100,000 flights per year take off from the regional airport in the Somerset countryside. Currently, 10.8 million people use the airport each year, making it the eighth busiest in the country — and it already has permission to expand its facilities to serve up to 12 million passengers per year.

The expansion of a major airport still has to follow the same legal process as building an extension to your home, with a planning application for the work going before the local council. Unlike a simple extension, however, the planning application Bristol Airport has submitted to North Somerset Council runs to almost 500 documents and some of those are hundreds of pages long themselves.

The documents set out exactly how Bristol Airport would change under the plans — and what the environmental impact of the project will be.

Here is what you need to know:

Expanding to 15 million passengers a year means a host of changes affecting passengers, pilots, and even passers-by.

The expansion would see the airport absorb neighbouring Cook’s Farm to the north west, increase the size of the terminal building by almost half, and lengthen the runway — with landing lights to cross the A38 and controversially be installed on Felton Common. Changes would also be made to the A38 itself.

There have already been huge changes underway at the airport as part of its expansion to 12 million passengers per year, but some of these works would no longer go ahead if it gets permission to expand to 15 million. 

The experience of catching a flight from Bristol Airport could change hugely, with a long tunnel to get passengers to their plane rather than buses.

The airport plans to increase the number of stands, where planes wait to be boarded, from 38 to 48. Currently, only 12 stands at the airport allow people to walk straight onto their plane, with the rest requiring an inconvenient bus ride.

Under the new plans, Bristol Airport says only three of the plane stands would need a bus transfer. Separate buildings of boarding gates would be located around the plane stands, which would be extended over neighbouring farmland. A new underground tunnel would allow passengers to reach these “piers” from the main terminal building.

The total size of the terminal would increase by almost 50% to over 100 square metres.

15 million passengers per year would translate to just over 300 passenger flights on a busy day, the airport estimates, with about 4,500 passengers departing and 3,000 arriving in the busiest hour. The planning application sets out three large extensions to the main terminal building to accommodate the extra passengers going through the airport.

A huge four storey extension to the west of the airport would fit an expanded baggage claim area complete with a duty free store in it “for easy access to arriving passengers.” The immigration hall would be moved upstairs and expanded, with a larger queueing area for busy periods.

An extension added on to the front of the terminal would “enhance” the look of the main entrance. Inside, it will add more space for check-in desks and space to queue for security. Meanwhile an extension to the east would increase space for more check-in desks on the ground floor and 1,150 square metres of new shops and restaurants in the departure lounge above.

In order to serve larger planes that can fly to America and the Middle East, Bristol Airport plans to extend its runway by 150 metres.

Extending the runway also means extending the landing lights leading up to it. As the longer runway will now almost reach right up to the A38, the landing lights leading up to it will need to cross the road and be located on Felton Common.

This has been hugely controversial among people living nearby, for whom the “unique” nature reserve means a great deal. The airport would be installing several lighting columns, ranging from 1.25 metres to 8.5 metres in height over part of the common, all enclosed by a three metre tall fence.

The common contains neolithic and bronze age burrows and is registered as a site of nature conservation. Chair of the newly formed Save Felton Common group, Debbie Johnson, told a meeting of North Somerset Council last month: “Bristol Airport has severely underestimated the raw anger that this proposal has produced in people. It is big enough already and Felton Common belongs to the people.”

Changes would also be coming to the A38 itself under the plans.

Currently, two roundabouts on the road provide access to the north and south sides of the airport and bookend a curve in the road as it skirts the edge of the runway. Bristol Airport is proposing a number of improvements to this stretch of road to improve public transport, cyclist and pedestrian access, and journey times — including installing a new bus lane along it.

The roundabout to the north, leading to the main terminal building, would be signalised and widened with new lanes under the plans. A toucan crossing would also be installed across the road to allow access from a new shared pedestrian and cycle path on the southbound side of the road. A new roundabout would be installed just next to the current southern roundabout, creating a double roundabout.

The expansion will also see yet more car parking built at the airport. The airport already has planning permission to turn the current surface level short-stay car park into a new multi-storey. Now a large, new surface level car park could be built next to this. A new staff car park would also be built on the south side of the site, to be served by the new roundabout.

The huge tanks which store jet fuel just outside the terminal building, known as a “fuel farm,” would be relocated to what is currently the actual farm of Cook’s Farm, but which will soon just be the north west corner of the airport. The area would also include facilities for catering, engineering, and freight.

On the south side of the runway, the airport is planning a new maintenance and repair hangar. The planning application said this would become a “necessity” given the greater number of aircraft anticipated at the airport.

Aviation is a major contributor to global warming and produces about 7% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Expanding to 12 million passengers per year was already hugely controversial due to the environmental impact. This will only increase with more planes flying from the airport.

In 2024, the carbon footprint of the airport was equivalent to 674 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide — with 670.3 of them coming from the planes themselves. The proposed expansion is estimated to lead to the equivalent of almost 150 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted per year, with 125 of them being from the planes.

Bristol Airport plans to phase out fossil fuels and become net zero in terms of the ground operations of the airport by 2030. The airport says it wants to be net zero in terms of flights too by 2050 and to “support the development of zero emissions flight.”

Like any other planning application, there is a period for people to have their say on the plans before North Somerset Council decides whether it should be approved. Certain organisations are “statutory consultees,” whose views on the plans will be sought out, but any member of the public can have their say.

The consultation deadline is currently set for June 28, with North Somerset Council having a deadline to determine the application by August 10. Major planning applications come before the council’s planning committee for a debate in public and a vote — but councillors do not necessarily have the final say.

In 2020, the committee voted to refuse planning permission for the airport to expand to 12 million passengers per year, only for this decision to be overturned by the planning inspectorate (which acts like a court of appeal for planning applications). Anti-airport expansion activists Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) took the matter to the High Court, but it ruled on the side of the airport.

If approved, the airport plans to begin work in 2029 and aims to complete the project by 2038.

You can view and comment on the planning application here: https://planning.n-somerset.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=TCIP27LP01600