Little known Lydd airport in Kent has been given the go ahead to extend its runway by nearly 300m and build a new terminal capable of handling half a million passengers a year.

The £25M project was approved by Government last week and has been hailed by the airport as “a victory for common sense” and a means to help provide much needed additional airport capacity in the South East.

“We submitted our planning applications in December 2006 and it has been a long road to get to where we are today,” said Lydd Airport’s executive manager Hani Mutlaq. “We put forward a compelling case for allowing the controlled development of the airport.”

Lydd currently hosts several scheduled light aircraft services each week to Le Touquet in France and would hope to welcome larger aircraft flying to several European destinations. The airport said road links to nearby Ashford and the M20 would not need upgrading to serve the expansion, but added that a new railway station beside the terminal is an option if demand warranted further investment.

At one time Lydd was among the UK’s busiest airports. In 1958 the airport said it handled 223,000 passengers – which was 37,000 more than Gatwick.

Expansion of Lydd airport follows announcements by other small airports around London of big ambitions. Both Cambridge and Manston now consider themselves as ‘spokes’ to larger hub airports such as Amsterdam.

Photo: Kim Traynor

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