Farnborough Airport is seeking to increase the number of annual aircraft movements permitted at the London-area business aviation gateway from 50,000 to 70,000. On September 20, the privately owned facility published detailed proposals to support its case as it seeks to win public support for an approval process that could take up to two years.
According to the airport, demand for flights will reach 70,000 movements by 2040, with the current 50,000 limit being particularly constraining as it includes movements over weekends. Its promise to the local community, with which it has just begun a series of public meetings, is that the expansion of flight activity will support around 1,100 new jobs and generate £470 million ($585 million) in gross added value to the economy. The airport said it already supports around 3,000 local jobs.
Besides seeking to increase movements, Farnborough intends to request changes to current aircraft weight categories to remove restrictions on models that slightly exceed the baseline of 50 tonnes. This change would allow more movements for aircraft weighing between 55 and 80 tonnes to ease limits on newer types such as the Bombardier Global 7500. With just a few exemptions, the airport cannot accept aircraft weighing more than 80 tonnes.
The public consultation runs through October 18, at which point the airport is expected to submit a planning application for the movement increases to Rushmoor Borough Council. This local government body will have 16 weeks to hold a subsequent “statutory consultation” in which other interested parties, including surrounding counties and communities, could participate.
On this basis, the application could reach Rushmoor’s planning committee in March 2024, which could approve or reject the application, potentially triggering a lengthy appeal process. At the same time, the UK will be facing a general election in which environmental concerns are set to be a divisive issue.
In recent years, opposition to airport traffic growth has extended beyond aircraft noise to wider objections concerning carbon emissions. Farnborough Airport has made significant investments to reduce its environmental footprint and last year achieved Level 4+ carbon neutrality as it strives to achieve net-zero carbon from controllable emissions no later than 2030.
The Farnborough team also stressed that modern business aircraft have lower noise profiles than those they are progressively replacing.
Part of the airport’s commitment to confronting climate change is to increase its financial contributions to environmental projects. It already supports a Community Environmental Fund administered by Rushmoor Borough Council and is now proposing to launch a sustainability fund that airport CEO Simon Geere said will raise £6.5 million for community projects between now and 2040, equating to £750,000 per year for work on carbon reduction and biodiversity.
“We’ve made significant investments in this airport and between 2009 and 2022 traffic grew by 28 percent while local jobs increased by 100 percent,” Geere told AIN. According to UK government economic data, Rushmoor is the fastest-growing local authority in terms of gross domestic product during that period.
Farnborough has been a strong advocate for increased use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) by business aircraft while recognizing ongoing supply limitations with energy companies not yet producing viable quantities at airports.
“We can’t do anything by ourselves, but we do have a leadership role,” said Geere. “My message to the government is that we need support on sourcing SAF, with more refining capacity and production capacity in the UK. One of the main roadblocks is who is going to underwrite the demand.”
The UK does have a mandate requiring that 10 percent of all fuel delivered at its airports be SAF by 2030. “[With the right support and policy], we could do things even quicker and we would welcome a discussion about Farnborough becoming the country’s first SAF-only airport,” Geere stated. “If we can secure the supply, we can secure the demand.”
So far in 2023, Farnborough Airport has seen traffic volumes similar to those it handled in pre-Covid 2019. Geere indicated that this year has seen a more normal activity profile after a frantic 2022 when there were sometimes challenges coping with the post-pandemic uptick. The airport is still some ways short of the overall 50,000 movement limit but is getting close to the boundaries of the weekend restrictions.