Pierre-Hugues Schmit, the Gatwick chief executive, said the airport was \u201cvery pleased that this ruling 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
The plans<\/a> will involve the West Sussex airport slightly repositioning its emergency runway and using it routinely for short-haul passenger aircraft. It is now among the busiest single-runway airports in the world, and hopes to have the second runway in operation as early as 2030.<\/p>\n The government declared the court ruling a \u201cmajor milestone for Gatwick and for local communities\u201d.<\/p>\n Alexander said: \u201cAround 13 million more passengers and 100,000 more flights will give holidaymakers greater choice and strengthen global links to help make the UK one of the most attractive places in the world to invest.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll back expansion that supports growth and our climate goals. To drive forward sustainable change, we\u2019re also investing more than \u00a3219m for green fuel production to cut emissions from flying and secure the future of aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n Campaigners had sought a judicial review of the Department for Transport\u2019s decision to approve the plans, arguing that the government had not properly assessed the scheme\u2019s climate impact.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n One of the applicants, Peter Barclay, the chair of Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, said he was disappointed with the ruling. He said: \u201cIt is time for governments to wake up and realise that saying yes to the expansion of any and every airport will not kickstart the economy \u2026 It will further lock in aviation\u2019s climate, noise and air pollution impacts, increase congestion on roads and public transport and blight local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Luton Rising, the council-owned company behind Luton airport, announced that all legal challenges to its expansion plans had now been cleared. The supreme court has dismissed any final possibility of appealing against a high court ruling last November upholding Alexander\u2019s signoff on plans<\/a> to increase the airport\u2019s annual capacity from 19 million to 32 million passengers by the mid-2040s.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/500.jpg\")
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