Regional Airports: The Next Front Line of UK Defence Infrastructure

How Regional Airports Should Be Preparing for a Dual Civil-Military Future

For decades, the UK's regional airports have been judged by familiar measures: passenger numbers, route development, cargo volumes and commercial growth. Masterplans have typically focused on terminal expansion, apron capacity and attracting new airlines.

Today, however, the role of the regional airport is beginning to change.

The Strategic Defence Review 2025 signals a significant shift in the way the Ministry of Defence intends to operate military aviation. Rather than concentrating aircraft and personnel at a handful of major RAF stations, the review proposes a more resilient and dispersed operating model that makes greater use of commercial airfields across the UK.

While much of the discussion has focused on defence policy, there is another conversation that deserves equal attention: what does this mean for airport masterplanning and design?

For architects, airport operators and developers, the question is no longer simply how to expand capacity. Increasingly, it is how to create airports that are adaptable, resilient and capable of responding to changing national priorities.

Masterplanning for Flexibility Rather Than Certainty

Good airport masterplanning has always been about anticipating change.

Aircraft become larger. Passenger demand evolves. Security requirements change. Technology advances.

The next generation of airport masterplans must now also consider operational resilience.

Not every regional airport will become a military operating location, but those that preserve flexibility within their infrastructure will be significantly better positioned if opportunities arise. More importantly, the same principles that improve military readiness also enhance commercial resilience, emergency response capability and long-term operational efficiency.

Rather than viewing defence as a separate agenda, airports should see it as another layer of resilience built into future development.

Protecting Space Before It Is Needed

One of the greatest challenges facing regional airports is the gradual loss of development flexibility.

As airports expand, available land is often consumed by commercial development, parking or aviation support facilities. While these uses are entirely appropriate, they can unintentionally remove opportunities for future operational growth.

Masterplans should therefore identify and safeguard strategic areas that could accommodate future aircraft stands, logistics facilities, maintenance hangars or fuel infrastructure should operational requirements evolve.

Safeguarding land is one of the lowest-cost decisions an airport can make today, yet it can provide enormous flexibility over the coming decades.

Designing Airside Infrastructure for Tomorrow's Aircraft

Many regional airports already accommodate commercial narrow-body aircraft with ease, but future military or humanitarian operations may introduce significantly larger aircraft with different pavement loading requirements.

Importantly, the runway is often not the constraint.

Taxiways, aprons and aircraft stands frequently have lower pavement classifications than the runway itself, limiting the ability to accommodate heavier aircraft such as the A400M Atlas or C-17 Globemaster.

Understanding these limitations early allows airports to incorporate phased strengthening works into future capital investment programmes rather than requiring expensive reactive upgrades.

Future-proofing infrastructure is rarely about over-designing; it is about understanding where adaptability may be required.

Planning Operational Segregation

One of the most important principles of dual-use airports is the ability for different activities to operate independently.

Military movements, cargo operations, maintenance activities and commercial passengers all have different operational requirements. Successful masterplanning considers how these activities could coexist without disrupting one another.

This may influence the location of future hangars, vehicle access routes, security boundaries, cargo facilities and even terminal expansion.

The objective is not to create separate airports, but to create an airport capable of accommodating different users simultaneously when required.

Thinking Beyond the Passenger Terminal

For many years, passenger terminals have been the centrepiece of airport investment.

Future airports, however, are likely to become more operationally diverse.

Cargo, aircraft maintenance, logistics, emergency response and specialist aviation services are all becoming increasingly important parts of regional airport business models.

Designing flexible support buildings that can evolve over time provides significantly greater value than highly specialised facilities with limited future adaptability.

Buildings should be capable of expansion, reconfiguration and multiple operational uses throughout their lifecycle.

Adaptability is becoming one of the defining characteristics of good aviation architecture.

Designing Resilience Into Infrastructure

Modern airports rely upon highly integrated systems.

• Electrical networks.

• Communications.

• Fuel infrastructure.

• Water supply.

• Digital systems.

As airports become increasingly critical pieces of national infrastructure, resilience must become a central design consideration.

Future masterplans should consider redundant utility routes, resilient communications, distributed energy systems and infrastructure capable of maintaining operations during disruption.

These investments are equally valuable during severe weather, infrastructure failures, cyber incidents or periods of heightened operational demand.

Resilience should no longer be viewed as an exceptional requirement. It is rapidly becoming fundamental airport infrastructure.

A Modular Approach to Airport Development

Perhaps the most significant change in thinking is to move away from designing airports for a single purpose.

Instead, airports should be viewed as adaptable platforms capable of supporting a range of operational scenarios throughout their lifetime.

An apron may primarily support commercial aviation but also accommodate military transport aircraft during periods of increased readiness.

A maintenance hangar may serve commercial operators today while providing additional resilience for defence or emergency operations in the future.

A cargo facility may evolve into a deployment or humanitarian logistics centre when required.

This modular approach allows airports to maximise long-term value without compromising their commercial objectives.

The Opportunity for Regional Airports

The forthcoming Defence Readiness Bill is expected to provide greater clarity around the role commercial airports may play within the UK's national resilience strategy.

While policy and funding mechanisms continue to evolve, the direction of travel is already clear.

Regional airports are increasingly recognised as strategic infrastructure, not simply transport infrastructure.

Those airports that begin assessing their capability, safeguarding land, understanding infrastructure constraints and embedding flexibility within their masterplans today will be significantly better prepared for future opportunities.

Importantly, these are not investments made solely for defence.

They improve commercial resilience.

They strengthen emergency response capability.

They create more adaptable infrastructure.

They future-proof airport estates for decades to come.

Designing the Airport of the Future

At Gebler Tooth Architects, we believe airport masterplanning is entering a new phase.

Success will no longer be measured solely by passenger growth or terminal capacity. Instead, it will increasingly be defined by how effectively airports can adapt to changing technologies, operational requirements and national priorities.

The most successful regional airports of the future will not necessarily be the largest.

They will be the most flexible.

By safeguarding land, designing adaptable infrastructure and embedding resilience into every stage of development, regional airports can position themselves at the forefront of the UK's next generation of aviation infrastructure.

The future airport is no longer simply a gateway for passengers.

It is becoming a critical piece of national infrastructure—and the decisions made in today's masterplans will determine how effectively it serves the country for decades to come.