More than 270 extra flights a DAY from Gatwick Airport? An update.

Thanks to all who attended our Zoom on Tuesday 17th Feb 2026. Both speakers gave us clear insights into the appeal.

Right now we’re busy preparing two short videos and we’ll send out the link as soon as they’re ready.

GACC and CAGNE led a 4-day appeal against expansion at the High Court.

In a nutshell:

The legal appeal: Jan 20^th – 23^rd 2026. Decision expected end Feb 2026.

Led by  by GACC interactive membership application and CAGNE Home – CAGNE

What’s next?

If the appeal is upheld, govt will possibly appeal.

If it is rejected, CAGNE and GACC will hopefully appeal.

The legal case:

Between them, GACC and CAGNE presented 11 arguments.  They had to focus on legal errors in the government’s presentation of their case, rather than specific issues which were presented at the initial hearings.

Alice Goodenough, lead solicitor for GACC (https://www.grsolicitors.co.uk/about-us/our-team/alice-goodenough/ ) said they had focused on:

1. Policy: that the Secretary of State had misunderstood the Airports National Policy Statement: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/airports-national-policy-statement 
2. Climate Change Act 2008: that the government’s legal framework here was faulty.  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/contents
3. Climate change impacts: evidence presented by the government had provided technical data but had not provided a climate change impact assessment as specified by law.
4. Noise: the govt had improved provisions for local noise around the airport but had not done enough to mitigate noise for those under flightpaths further away.

AND:

5. The economic argument.

Provided by Alex Chapman, Senior Economist of the New Economics Foundation:  check his blog: https://neweconomics.org/section/articles/climate-change.

 He said:

a) The Secretary of State had changed the economic impact of Gatwick expansion from moderate to major but provided no data for this. ‘Major’ involves large-scale local and national benefit.

b) The govt had failed to answer repeated requests to provide data to back up their claims that the extra runway was needed to cope with expanding numbers of highly profitable business passengers.  Recent figures show that business class passenger numbers had fallen since Covid.

c) Existing data shows there is little profit in tourist passengers (only from duty-free and eating facilities provided at the terminal).

d) The planning application noted that there was no national increase in jobs.

So, any national economic benefit relies on these business passengers, for which no evidence was provided.

We await the judge’s decision, expected in just over a week…

And while you’re waiting,

An extra runway means:

Over 100,000 more flights a year. That’s around 270 flights a day more

Airport capacity almost doubled from 40 million to 75 million passengers annually. Existing terminals will be extended,

Key Daily Flight Information for Gatwick at present:

• Average Arrivals: Roughly 259 flights arrive daily, with at least one flight landing every 5 minutes.
• Peak Times: During busy periods, such as in August, the airport handles over 900 combined daily movements..

https://cagne.org/