Gatwick’s expansion cleared its main legal hurdle on June 23 after the High Court dismissed two judicial review challenges brought by local activists, upholding the UK government’s approval of the £2.2 billion London Gatwick North Runway Project and clearing the way for the airport to put its reserve runway into routine use, a move that could add around 100,000 aircraft movements a year in one of the largest low-cost airline bases in Europe.
High Court judge Mr Mold rejected claims brought by Peter Barclay, president of the Gatwick area conservation campaignand the group Communities against Gatwick noise emissionsconfirming that Transportation Secretary Heidi Alexander acted legally in granting approval for the project. development consent order in September 2025.
The privately funded scheme will move Gatwick’s current northern holding runway 12 meters north so that departing planes can use it next to the main runway, while arriving flights continue to use the main runway. Gatwick hopes the work will increase annual passenger capacity by around 13 million and take the airport towards 80 million passengers a year by 2047.
The airport, 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of London, is the second-busiest single-runway hub in the United Kingdom and the busiest in the world, currently handling around 280,000 flights a year. The Department for Transport treated Gatwick primarily as a leisure airport served largely by low-cost carrier flights, a key profile for the case for additional capacity.
Gatwick is space restricted, and the extra movements are important for airlines that have their planes there, led by easyJet, which operates its largest base at the airport. The Gatwick expansion gives low-cost and leisure operators room to add routes, frequencies and aircraft based at a congested airport where space shortages have limited growth.
Alexander approved the plan in September 2025 and has said work could be completed in 2029. Gatwick estimates the project will create 14,000 jobs and add £1bn a year to the economy, figures the airport acknowledges are its own forecasts.
Richard Graybrook, director and head of aviation for the UK, Ireland and Europe at the consultancy ramboll, described the ruling as “an important step forward for the aviation sector.” He said airport expansions “unlock investment, remove critical capacity constraints, strengthen international trade, create much-needed jobs, support local communities and act as a powerful driver of overall economic expansion.”
The ruling on the Gatwick expansion is not the last word. Under the accelerated timetable for challenges to infrastructure projects of national importance, any application for permission to appeal must be made within seven days, and both CAGNE and Barclay have said they are considering an appeal. Activists had argued that the government did not adequately assess the climate impact of the development.
Meanwhile, Gatwick has brought its own legal claim against Alexander over the Airport Slot Allocation (Relief of Usage Requirements) Regulations 2026, which reduced the proportion of slots airlines must use to retain them from 80% to 70%.
The government introduced the relief citing the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting risk to airline schedules; For operators, the lower use-it-or-lose-it threshold changes the ease with which spaces can be maintained without flying.
