Bristol Airport’s Final 2040 Master Plan published

An extensive consultation on the draft Master Plan was launched in November 2024 and lasted for 10 weeks, with opinions sought from local communities, customers, businesses, and the Airport’s stakeholders. More than 19,000 people viewed the consultation material online and over 200 people attended consultation events, with 2,381 unique participants sharing their views in writing. 

The proposals would enable the Airport to provide more connections and serve new destinations, including a limited number of new longer-haul flights, connecting the region directly with destinations such as the east coast of America and the Middle East, and providing important new markets for inbound tourism and connecting businesses with these markets.  

The future development is forecast to boost the regional economy by providing a total of £3bn in GVA and creating 1,000 new jobs at the Airport, with employment focused on areas including Weston-super-Mare and South Bristol. Over 70% of people employed at the Airport are local residents. 

The detailed feedback has helped to shape the Master Plan which has now been adopted and will be used to inform detailed proposals to be submitted for planning permission later this year. The planning application would include all of the necessary infrastructure to enable Bristol Airport to serve 15 million passengers by the late 2030s.  

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. Our team has carefully studied all the responses and are using them to shape our detailed proposals before submitting a planning application. 

“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. 

“We recognise the concerns about carbon emissions resulting from Airport growth and the implications for climate change. So, we’re bringing forward proposals for what we consider to be responsible growth, which is both within the current UK carbon budgets required to meet net zero for all emissions by 2050, and with measures to achieve net zero airport operations by 2030. Meanwhile, we are also committed to working with partners in our region to decarbonise aviation.” 

UK Government policy supports the sustainable growth of airports outside the South East of England that make best use of existing runways. Bristol Airport’s proposals to provide new destinations would reduce the journeys to London airports, which 10 million passengers make from the South West of England and South Wales every year. 

Bristol Airport’s Master Plan sets out proposals for its passenger cap to be raised from 12 million passengers a year to 15 million. A planning application for the necessary infrastructure to achieve this will be submitted to North Somerset Council later this year. The plans would see aircraft movements increase from 85,990 to 100,000 per year in the longer term to meet demand for air travel. On a busy day in peak period this would result in 35 extra aircraft movements. While night flying restrictions would remain, the Airport is proposing to increase night flights by 1,000 per year - on average, four per night on a busy night in the peak period. 
 
You can read Bristol Airport’s Final 2040 Master Plan here.