Stansted second runway delayed as passenger demand falls

Stansted operator BAA has confirmed that plans for a second runway at the airport will be delayed for the fourth time after a drop in consumer demand for flights.

But the company insisted that Britain's third largest airport would still open a new runway in 2017 if it secures planning permission at a public inquiry due to start in April.

The extra runway would allow annual passenger numbers at the airport to increase from 22.3 million to 35 million.

But the airport has admitted it will not be hitting the 35 million passengers a year mark by 2015 as originally expected.

The campaign group Stop Stansted Expansion said that a letter sent by BAA to its solicitors advised that the planned opening date of 2015 had now been put back until 2017.

"It is wholly unacceptable for BAA to try to keep its options open by continuing to postpone the threat of a second runway," said the campaign groups economics adviser, Brian Ross. "It should remove the threat once and for all."

The original plan, outlined in the Government's 2003 Air Transport White Paper, was that a second Stansted runway should be built by 2011/12 – a date that was later put back to 2012, then 2013, then 2015, and now 2017.

A BAA Stansted spokesman insisted that while it had delayed the planned opening of the new runway it remained fully committed to the project.

"The precise date of completion of a second runway will depend on a number of factors," he said. "What hasn't changed, however, is the need for a new runway at Stansted given the shortage of capacity in the southeast of England."

However, the move will provide further impetus to green groups campaigning against expansion of both Stansted and Heathrow, which have long maintained that BAA's projections for increased demand for air travel are overly optimistic.

A recent survey from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives suggested that the number of business travellers had fallen in recent months as a result of the recession. Green groups have long maintained that concerns over climate change, increased use of video-conferencing and wider availability of high-speed travel will all combine to ensure that as the economy recovers passenger numbers will not expand as rapidly as the aviation industry expects.