M1 Junction 10 to Junction 11 (Luton / Luton Airport)
Luton’s two junctions on the M1, 3.4 miles apart. Junction 10 is the one for London Luton Airport, about two miles from the motorway along the A1081, New Airport Way. Junction 11 is the junction for Luton town and Dunstable.
Live traffic news at M1 Junctions 10 and 11
Incidents and roadworks between Junction 9 and Junction 12 that we are aware of.
M1 northbound Jct 10 to Jct 11 hard shoulder closure (MP 49/4 to 49/6)
05:19 (5:19am)15 Oct 2026reported 3 min ago
- Location
- M1 northbound within J10
- Direction
- Northbound
- Lanes closed
- Hard shoulder closed
- Reason
- Construction work
- Schedule
- 02:35 (2:35am) Thu 23 July 2026 → 05:00 (5am) Sat 24 Oct 2026
+ 5 more near Junctions 10 and 11 - see all the M1 traffic news →
This is the news for Junctions 10 and 11 only, not the whole M1. For the rest of the motorway see all the latest M1 traffic news, the overhead signs and the speed limits in force now.
Updated 05:22 (5:22am) Thu 15 Oct 2026
Live traffic speed flow: M1 Junctions 9 to 12
Untick all three to see just the speeds. We show the important overhead signs and the mandatory speed limits (red ring); see every overhead sign.
Go to our live M1 traffic speed flow map ›
NOTE: The speed flow, overhead sign messages or other information shown on our live traffic speed flow map is updated every few minutes. We cross check the data and aim to provide warnings if there could be a delay or an inaccurate speed reading. There can be occasions, beyond our control, and despite our best efforts where the speed flow could be inaccurate. We cannot therefore guarantee the speed you can expect on any stretch of the motorway is always accurately shown. However we hope you will find our live traffic speed flow map a useful tool in trying to plan your journey. Safe driving.
Over 152,000 vehicles a day between Luton’s junctions
| Measure | Per day |
|---|---|
| All motor vehicles | 152,346 |
| Cars and taxis | 107,851 |
| Lorries (HGVs) | 18,555 — 12.2% of all traffic |
| Length of this stretch | 3.4 miles |
That makes it the 8th busiest of the 42 measured stretches of M1 mainline, and the 22nd for the share of its traffic that is lorries. The Department for Transport counts this stretch at two adjacent points either side of a local-authority boundary that report the same measurement, so it is published once here. See how busy the M1 is junction by junction.
Junction 10: the airport junction
Junction 10 meets the A1081, New Airport Way, the road to the terminal. For anyone arriving by train instead, the Luton DART shuttle has linked Luton Airport Parkway station with the terminal since 10/03/2023.
Junction 11: Luton and Dunstable
Junction 11 is the junction for the town. The road into Luton from here is signed A5065. Luton’s population is 239,090 (ONS mid-2024 estimate for the local authority), and Luton Town’s ground, Kenilworth Road, is in the town.
London Luton Airport in figures
- Opened on 16/07/1938 as Luton Municipal Airport.
- 17,770,247 passengers in 2025, up 4.9% and the fifth busiest airport in the UK (CAA figures).
- 134,763 aircraft movements in 2025 — on average about 369 a day.
- Airlines with bases here: easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair and Wizz Air.
- Record summer in 2026: more than 5.5 million passengers from June to August.
- Record day: Friday 29/05/2026, with about 33,000 departing passengers.
- Permission to grow to 32 million passengers a year was approved on 03/04/2025.
We could not find a published figure for the airport’s busiest hours, so we do not give one. What is published is where the records fell: the summer months and a Friday at the end of May. If you have a flight to catch, check the news on this page before you leave rather than at the junction.
Coming from the A1(M) instead
Drivers from the east do not need the M1 at all. The airport’s own directions from the A1(M) use junction 9 and the A505 through Hitchin. Our sister site A1M Traffic covers that motorway; for news on the A505 itself, see Traffic News England. Every crossing between the two roads is on our M1 and A1 link roads page.
Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.