Gatwick’s Second Runway Is Cleared, and It Comes Down to Moving a Centreline 39 Feet

On August 4, 2026, the Court of Appeal refused campaigners permission to challenge the approval of Gatwick’s second runway, clearing the last legal obstacle in front of the project. Lord Justice Holgate and Lord Justice Dove concluded that each of the grounds of appeal raised by each appellant was unarguable.

The appellants were local resident Peter Barclay and the campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions, known as CAGNE. Their case turned on greenhouse gas emissions, the treatment of non-CO2 aviation effects, the deliverability of the UK government’s Jet Zero strategy, and wastewater provision.

Gatwick chief executive Pierre-Hugues Schmit said the ruling means the airport can now press on with bringing the project to life. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called it a major milestone that unlocks investment and thousands of jobs.

The Cheapest Runway in Britain

The striking thing about the scheme is how little concrete it actually involves. Gatwick already has a second strip of pavement running parallel to its main runway, but the two centrelines sit only about 656 feet (200 m) apart.

That gap is too narrow for both to be used at once under international safety standards, so today the northern runway serves as a taxiway and is only available for flights when the main runway is out of service. The entire project rests on shifting its centreline 39 feet (12 m) north.

Once that is done, London Gatwick plans to run departures from the northern runway while arrivals continue on the main one. Around it comes the expensive part: taxiways, stands, terminal work, and road access, for a total of £2.2 billion, privately financed.

What It Changes

Gatwick has been the busiest single-runway airport in the world for years, handling 42.8 million passengers in 2025 by pushing movement rates to the edge of what one strip can absorb. The airport projects the second runway will add roughly 100,000 flights and 13 million passengers a year, working toward a ceiling of 80 million.

The added capacity is aimed squarely at narrowbodies, the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families that already dominate the airport’s short-haul network. Gatwick estimates 14,000 new jobs and about £1 billion a year for the regional economy.

The contrast with the other London expansion story is hard to miss. Heathrow’s third runway remains years from breaking ground, and the airport has already won permission to start charging passengers for early costs on a runway that does not exist yet.

Gatwick’s route to new capacity is cheaper, faster, and does not require demolishing a village or moving a motorway. It is also, in raw terms, smaller: a segregated-mode second runway is not the same thing as a full new parallel. But it is the one that got through the courts first, which in London’s crowded airport system counts for a great deal.

Construction timing has not been confirmed beyond the airport’s stated aim of being operational around 2030. With the legal route now exhausted, the remaining variables are procurement, build sequencing, and how much of the work can be done without disrupting the runway the airport still depends on.