London’s fourth-largest airport, Luton, has been given permission to expand its annual passenger numbers from under 17 million to 32 million by 2040, despite environmental objections.

The decision by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, overrules concerns about additional carbon emissions, noise and traffic. The Planning Inspectorate had recommended that she should turn it down on environmental grounds.

The expansion represents a rise of 90 per cent compared with last year’s passenger throughput – without building a new runway. The increase will be met with expanded terminal space, improved taxiways, and infrastructure improvements.

Take-offs and landings on Luton’s single runway could increase by 77,000 annually – an average of 211 extra movements per day.

Ms Alexander’s approval aligns with previous ministerial support for expansion at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, with an additional runway at each. They are respectively the first and second airports serving London, with Stansted in third place.

The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Sian Berry, said: “This is the third disastrous decision on airports the government has delivered in as many months, proving once again that Labour has stopped caring about our climate commitments.

“Nearly doubling Luton’s passenger capacity will cause active economic harm to coastal communities like Brighton, who have seen holiday spending fall by almost a third since 2022.

“The government needs to break free from the influence of wealthy airport bosses, and start delivering on changes that people actually want to see. It makes far more economic sense to impose a frequent flyer levy and invest the money raised in our brilliant tourism sector, rather than building new terminals and runways to help fly more money out of the UK.”

Luton airport’s chief executive, Alberto Martin, told The Independent: “The plans are very ambitious to increase capacity, but I think they are very strong plans at the same time. We are talking about £2.4bn investment. And now that we support directly more than 28,000 jobs in the region, this could mean a significant benefit for the community as well.

“We want to continue serving the markets that we serve but also to also open up opportunities to reach out to destinations that we do not serve today. There are plenty of opportunities out there where we could further serve the European destinations that we do serve, but also expand those opportunities to all the regions like the Middle East.”

This week Jet2 launched flights from Luton airport for the first time – putting it in competition with existing players easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air.

“The big four with us now means a lot for us in terms of reassuring us that we are doing things the right way,” Mr Martin said.

The local campaign group, Ladacan, said it “actively opposes the plan for massive further expansion of Luton airport”.

The campaigners say: “Local people want to sleep at night; enjoy their gardens or parks; breathe fresh air; see blue sky; drive on the roads not sit in traffic jams; get on the trains; breathe clean air.”

On Monday, easyJet opened a new base at Southend airport, which is the sixth serving London – with London City in fifth place.

Listen to Simon Calder’s interview with Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2, on launching flights from Luton

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