Airport expansion

As the demand for air travel grows, it is BAA's job to react and accommodate this demand. We support Government plans to allow aviation to grow within environmental limits. We think that is vital to protect the UK’s trade competitiveness; to improve airport operations; and to reduce overcrowding and delays which will improve the experience of our passengers.

Expansion of aviation is compatible with action on climate change by incorporating aviation within the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Aviation brings social and economic benefits and our airports create employment and income for local communities, but we realise that they also bring negative consequences like noise and traffic congestion. We engage with our communities and try to minimise negative impacts where possible and we support projects to improve local quality of life and we always carry out sustainability appraisals in addition to the required impact assessment for all major developments at our airports.

Over the next 10 years our plans for expansion include:

• A second runway and terminal at Stansted
• An increase in capacity at Heathrow
• Heathrow East - replacing Terminals 1 and 2
• Renovation of Terminals 3 and 4 at Heathrow
• T5C - a second satellite for Terminal 5.

For detailed information about our plans, please see the airport expansion section of our corporate responsibility report.