New runway plans at Luton shelved

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Bosses at London Luton Airport have unexpectedly withdrawn plans to build a new runway.

TBI, the company which owns the airport, planned to build a full length replacement runway to the south of the existing runway, with a new terminal.

Airport bosses said the reason plans had been shelved was because it would take too long to make a return on the money that it would cost to build.

TBI said it would now focus on the existing airport site instead.

The airport says it will publish plans later this year about what it wants to do by 2015.

Bosses at Luton Airport had previously announced proposals for the replacement runway and said a new terminal would be completed in time for London's 2012 Olympics.

Protests over plan

The plans, aimed at catering for growth in air travel during the next 25 years, led to protests.

The new runway would have been built 950m south of the existing runway. Up to 9,000 jobs would have been created.

The existing runway would have been used for emergencies and while maintenance work was carried out on the new runway.

People living near the airport had staged protests over the plan.

Environmentalists had also warned such an expansion would just feed travellers' appetite for cheap air travel, which they described as a serious threat to the global climate.