On Tuesday, August 4, the UK Government won a legal challenge over plans for a two-runway operation at Gatwick Airport.
The campaigners argued that the Government has not properly assessed the climate impact of an additional runway, but lost a bid to escalate the legal fight to the Court of Appeal.
The new runway is set to start being used by the end of the decade and the Government said it will create job opportunities.
Lord Justice Holgate and Lord Justice Dove dismissed campaigners’ bids against the new runway.
“We conclude that each of the grounds of appeal raised by each appellant is unarguable,” they said.
“Neither appeal has a real prospect of success. We also consider that there are no other compelling reasons for either appeal to be heard.”
The airport expansion, approved in September, will cost £2.2billion and involve moving the airport’s emergency runway 12 metres north.
The airport is the second busiest in the UK and has one of the busiest runways in the world. The expansion of the runway will enable the hub to host an extra 100,000 flights annually.
The Government wrote in a statement on Tuesday that the 100,000 additional flights each year will “massively” expand on the more than 200 destinations currently offered, giving passengers “more choice and boosting competition to drive down fares”.
It also said that the expansion will “create 14,000 new jobs across the region and deliver an additional £1 billion in economic benefits per year, “helping to drive growth across the South East and beyond through Gatwick’s national supply chain”.