In positive news for Gatwick Airport, the airport has won its case in the Court of Appeal for its Northern Runway expansion, allowing the airport to operate with two runways in the future.
Gatwick airport from the air – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
The move follows the initial approval of the second runway by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on 21st September 2025.
The airport wants to move its northern runway 12 metres north, which is currently only used for taxiing or as a backup, and make it operational by the end of the decade.
The new runway layout at Gatwick, with the North Runway planned to be brought into full service – Image, Gatwick Airport
This would allow for 100,000 flights a year from the Southern England airport, focusing on single alise aircraft – such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families.
Since the approval, there has been pushback from the campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (Cagne), as well as indivudals who have campaigned and brought appeals to the applications.
Today, those were cast aside in a judgement handed down.
Pierre-Hugues Schmit, Chief Executive of London Gatwick said:
“Today’s Court of Appeal decision to comprehensively reject the legal challenges brought by the two campaign groups opposing London Gatwick’s Northern Runway Project, confirms, yet again, that the September 2025 decision by the Secretary of State for Transport to approve the Northern Runway Project was taken properly and lawfully. 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.
“The Northern Runway project will deliver significant business, tourism and trade benefits for the UK, including 14,000 new jobs, a £1bn boost to the economy every year and a comprehensive education, skills and business strategy designed to bring maximum benefits to local people and the Gatwick region.
“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. We would like to thank everyone who has supported our planning application through the various stages and will announce further details in due course.”
Now the hard part
With expansion granted and appeals process out of the way, now will come the hard part of design and moving into the construiciton to deliver this project, as well as ensuring that the enviomental goals are met too.
There’s now just one little airport’s expansion project that needs to go ahead now.
Nothing important. A small unknown airport called Heathrow. I’m sure you haven’t heard of it…
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