§ Mr. Brightasked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he has any plans to extend passenger facilities and runways at Luton before 1990.
§ Mr. TebbitProposals for the further development of the airport are a matter for the owners, Luton borough council.
§ Mr. Brightasked the Secretary of State for Trade (1) what is the upper limit of aircraft movements and passenger handling capacity at Luton airport; and what are the most recent figures available for these movements and numbers of passengers;
(2) how great an expansion of air services from Luton could take place without effect on the services operated from Stansted.
§ Mr. TebbitAircraft movements at Luton interact with those at Stansted and the capacity of each runway cannot therefore be assessed independently. Taken together, the two airports can handle about 120,000 air transport movements a year. Luton has a terminal capacity of about three million passengers a year. In 1978 it handled about 20,400 air transport movements and 2 million terminal passengers. Stansted handled about 4,400 air transport movements. Thus, assuming no increase in traffic at Stansted, the spare runway capacity available would be about 95,000 air transport movements.