Court of Appeal blocks final challenge to Gatwick’s second runway

Gatwick’s £2.2bn northern runway scheme is now legally unassailable after two senior judges refused campaigners permission to appeal, ending an eight-year planning battle and clearing the airport to begin design and delivery work on a project that will add 100,000 flights a year.

For UK business travellers, the ruling removes the last credible obstacle to a second operational runway at the country’s second busiest airport. Gatwick can now proceed with moving its emergency runway 12 metres north so it can handle departures by narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, the workhorses of European corporate schedules. Around 13 million additional passengers a year are expected once the scheme is running.

Peter Barclay and the campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (Cagne) had asked the Court of Appeal to overturn a High Court judgment handed down in June. Lord Justice Holgate and Lord Justice Dove refused, ruling in a 29-page judgment that “each of the grounds of appeal raised by each appellant is unarguable” and that “neither appeal has a real prospect of success”. They added that there were “no other compelling reasons for either appeal to be heard”, and described the earlier ruling as “detailed and thorough”.

Why the climate arguments failed

Cagne and Barclay had told a hearing in January that the approval was unlawful, arguing chiefly that ministers had not properly assessed the climate impact of the scheme. Mr Justice Mould rejected that in June, finding it was “neither illogical nor contradictory” for the Transport Secretary to decline to refuse consent “on the basis that it would have a material impact on the ability of Government to meet its carbon reduction targets”. He also dismissed a separate argument questioning the need for extra capacity at Gatwick given its proximity to Heathrow.

The development consent decision has now survived scrutiny at both levels, which matters for corporate travel buyers planning route strategy several years out. Uncertainty over whether the scheme would proceed has hung over airline network planning at the airport since consent was granted, a period in which Gatwick has already been adding carriers and capacity.

What happens next at the airport

Pierre-Hugues Schmit, chief executive of London Gatwick, said the original approval “was taken properly and lawfully”. He added: “We are also very pleased that this ruling, from senior Court of Appeal Judges, brings to an end an eight-year planning and legal process which has carefully tested and scrutinised every aspect of our expansion plans on multiple occasions. This final ruling means that we can now press on with the important job of bringing this exciting project to life and move forward into the design and delivery phase.”

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Schmit said the Northern Runway project is expected to deliver 14,000 new jobs and a £1bn annual boost to the economy. Muniya Barua, deputy chief executive at BusinessLDN, called the ruling “the final step in a long-running process”, providing “welcome certainty for businesses, investors and communities”, and said expanding aviation capacity was “a vital part of maintaining London’s position as a leading global city”.

Travellers planning ahead can find terminal, rail and lounge detail in our Gatwick airport guide, which covers the practicalities of the two-terminal layout during the construction period.

The emissions question remains

Barclay was unequivocal in defeat. “We are very disappointed with the Court’s decision. We took this challenge as far as we could because we believed that the decision to allow Gatwick to expand was fundamentally flawed,” he said. “It was not supported by government policy, would only serve to line the pockets of the airport and airlines, and would do so at the expense of local residents and the climate.”

Cagne said residents “should be immensely proud of what they have achieved in holding Gatwick Airport’s shareholders to account”, adding that the runway “will come at a significant cost to both the taxpayer and the planet”.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the outcome as “a major milestone for Gatwick and for local communities, with expansion unlocking investment and creating thousands of new jobs”. She said the extra flights would “give holidaymakers greater choice and strengthen global links to help make the UK one of the most attractive places in the world to invest”, and pointed to more than £219 million of government investment in green fuel production to cut aviation emissions. Whether that keeps pace with demand is a separate question, given the UK is already behind on its sustainable aviation fuel targets.