London Gatwick Airport’s Northern Runway is government-approved; now the fun starts

The world's busiest single-runway airport, London Gatwick, is set to get a little brother 'short runway' at last, after the UK government approved it. But it still has to get planning permission, and that means taking on entrenched and battle-hardened veterans of the 'No Airport Expansion' brigade.

While the management is concerned that regulatory issues might mean its usage is curtailed to the point where its efficacy is questionable, the bigger concern must be that the project will be fought tooth and nail by idealists and affected locals. That will grind its way through a judicial system in which the wheels of justice turn until the tyres are bald and burned.

Indeed, Gatwick might be considered to be in a race to the bottom with its rival Heathrow Airport, whose own third runway probably won't be operational until 2035 - six years after the sitting government (hopefully) suggests that Gatwick's will be.

Some think it might open the way to a renewed bid for a full-length runway - that ambition having been crushed a decade ago by the Airports Commission's preference for the Heathrow runway, which is still on the drawing board. But it probably won't.

No, what Gatwick can only look forward to now is objection after objection being placed in its path by a well rested and reinvigorated movement that hasn't had a major battle to fight for a while.