Major expansion beyond 18 million is years away and lets remember ANEA rent the airport and don't own it. I still have the proposal to upgrade the M1 and junction 10A dated 2003 and that took 12 years to be completed.
If anyone wants to know the thinking behind the dedicated rail link proposal then look no further than the airport document called Master Plan Protect 2030 which was published in October 2005.
A tracked transit system between Luton Airport Parkway and London Luton Airport will be built by 2015 and have a capacity to facilitate airport growth to 30mppa in 2030.
Also included was the following
The Options
1. The draft Master Plan Core Strategy identifies four runway options, each designed to
provide a full length 3,000m runway which are
Option A – an extension of the existing 2,160 metre runway eastwards.
Satellite piers and aprons would be extended to the east.
Option B – a new replacement runway approximately 250 metres to the
south of the existing runway. Satellite piers and aprons would be extended to
the east.
Option C – a minor re-alignment of option B, providing a more south-west to
north-east alignment. Satellite piers and aprons would be extended to the
east.
Option D – a southern parallel replacement runway approximately 950
metres south of the existing runway centreline, and offset to the east by 330
metres. A second passenger terminal with satellite piers would be built south
of the existing runway.
Plan A uses the least land but achieves very little and would be hard to build and would be disruptive.
Plan B would have the existing runway used as an emergency runway and taxiway and would be easier to build and would be less disruptive.
Plan C would take flight paths away from populated areas
Plan D would have a second runway 950m to the south with a second terminal.
I think the local residents will have something to say long before Luton airport becomes capable of hitting 25m passengers per year...
Yes they would and I would be one of them. Not only that but councils and county councils far and wide would also object and that would delay any work for years. You only have to look at what is going on at Heathrow to see that.