Bristol Airport’s long-term expansion plans, have been slammed as ‘tone-deaf and reckless,” by the Green Party. The airport’s Master Plan to 2040 sets out proposals to increase passenger capacity from 10.5 million to 15 million per year. It claims this will create an additional 1,000 jobs and raise its annual economic contribution from £2 billion to £3 billion. The expansion includes new direct connections to the Middle East and North America, attracting inbound tourism to the region.
A spokesperson for Bristol Airport said: “We are one of our area’s largest private sector employers with over 5,000 people working on site. This number has grown considerably over the years, and we expect our proposals to deliver an additional 1,000 jobs. We are a major employer for people in south Bristol, which contains some of our region’s most deprived areas.”
However, Bristol Green councillors have strongly opposed the expansion, highlighting its environmental and social consequences. The Green Group leader, councillor Emma Edwards, said: “In the teeth of a worsening climate emergency, it’s frankly staggering that Bristol Airport is yet again planning to expand. The last thing our city and the region needs is yet more carbon emissions from flights, more traffic congestion, more noise, and worsening air quality. We condemn these plans in the strongest possible terms.”
The Green Party argues that the expansion would lead to over 14,000 additional flights annually, a 25% increase in night flights—despite the airport already breaching its night flight limits—worsening noise pollution and disturbing residents. Increased passenger numbers are also expected to put more private vehicles on the road, exacerbating traffic congestion and air pollution.
Critics have raised concerns that the expansion will require the loss of 33 hectares of green belt land, potentially damaging wildlife and the natural landscape. They also dispute the economic benefits, citing analysis from the New Economics Foundation, which found that the boom in air travel since 2015 has failed to improve UK productivity or GDP, while business travel has declined by 50% since 2013. Green councillors argue that only 13% of airport passengers are tourists visiting Bristol, meaning the financial benefits will largely flow out of the region rather than into it.
Bristol Central Green MP Carla Denyer has also objected to the plans, adding to calls for a nationwide reassessment of airport expansions. The Green Group is demanding a cumulative impact assessment of airport growth, a three-year moratorium on capacity expansion, and an update to the Airports National Policy in line with net zero targets.
But in response, the Airport addressing environmental concerns, said “We recognise there will be concerns about carbon emissions resulting from airport growth and the implications for climate change. We are bringing forward proposals for what we consider to be responsible growth, growth that 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 on aviation decarbonisation.”