A last-ditch legal challenge to stop the owners of London Gatwick Airport (LGW) from transforming its northern taxiway into a fully operational runway has been rejected by the Court of Appeal, paving the way for the massive construction project to get underway.
London Gatwick is currently the second busiest single runway airport in the world after Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The airport is operating at near capacity, and its operators have long wanted to expand by creating a second fully operational runway.
The airport was actually designed and built with two parallel runways: 8L and 26L (known as the Northern Runway), and 8R and 26R (known as the Southern Runway), but international design and safety standards mean that only one runway can be used at any one time.
Normally, the Southern Runway is used for day-to-day operations, while the slightly shorter Northern Runway is used as a taxiway. The Northern Runway is only ever used for take-offs and landings when the Southern Runway is out of action.
In order to bring both runways into full operational use at the same time, the Northern Runway will need to be moved 12 meters north to allow enough separation from the Southern Runway.
The project has, however, been subject to various legal challenges, with campaign groups arguing that a two-runway airport would break the British government’s net-zero emissions targets.
To challenge London Gatwick’s application to upgrade the Northern Runway, campaigners picked apart the decision-making process, claiming the Transport Secretary made various mistakes in approving the application, and suggesting that the airport’s economic benefit claims were inflated.
In June, the High Court in London rejected all of those legal challenges, but two campaign groups sought permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal. On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal handed down its decision on whether it would hear the appeal… the court rejected all of the challenges.
“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,” commented Pierre-Hugues Schmit, the chief executive of London Gatwick.
“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.”
So, when will work begin? No date has yet been set by London Gatwick for when work to upgrade the Northern Runway will get underway. On Tuesday, the airport said only that it would make a further announcement “in due course.”
In any case, the airport operator has previously said that the runway wouldn’t be operational until 2030 at the earliest.
Still to be decided is whether Heathrow Airport will be allowed to build a controversial third runway. Unlike London Gatwick, the larger West London airport hasn’t even yet submitted a planning application.
Heathrow had warned it might not even proceed with the planning application if regulators didn’t give it permission to recoup planning and legal costs from passengers. Last week, however, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved a rise in passenger fees to do exactly this.
With funding now secured, Heathrow is expected to submit a planning application by the end of 2026. The application process is likely to be marred by legal challenges similar to the ones faced by London Gatwick, and there is no guarantee that Heathrow will win approval to build a third runway.
