Legal challenge to Luton Airport expansion to be heard in Court of Appeal

The challenge by campaign group LADACAN (Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) on whether development consent for the project had been granted unlawfully was heard at the High Court in November 2025.

A judge rejected that argument, but LADACAN has now been granted a rolled-up hearing at the Court of Appeal to consider both its application for permission to appeal and its claim that the impacts on climate change of the project were not properly assessed.  

The proposed expansion was submitted to planning inspectors in February 2023, with plans including a new terminal which would double annual passenger capacity at the airport.  

Planning inspectors concluded in May 2024 that the benefits of such a significant expansion would be outweighed by the environmental harms, and recommended against granting development consent.  

But in April 2025, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander granted consent - a decision which LADACAN is challenging by judicial review.  

In the November hearing, LADACAN argued that emissions from extra flight traffic were not properly considered, and that the decision to green light the expansion was inconsistent with the assessment approach taken over the Gatwick Airport expansion.  

In December, the High Court handed down a decision rejecting LADACAN’s claim, a judgment which is now being challenged in the Court of Appeal.  

LADACAN is arguing that the High Court judgment is faulty on the following grounds: 

• The exclusion of greenhouse gas emissions from inbound flights in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was unlawful. 
• The assessment of non-carbon dioxide emissions was inadequate and unlawful. 
• The government’s duties under the Climate Change Act 2008 do not in themselves comprise a ‘pollution control regime’. 

LADACAN is represented by Leigh Day’s environment team, and Estelle Dehon KC, Ruchi Parekh and Hannah Taylor of Cornerstone Barristers. 

Andrew Lambourne, chair of LADACAN, said: 

“If the High Court's decision stands, it would legally authorise the systematic omission of up to five sixths of the actual climate impact of airport expansion from environmental assessments – and not just at Luton. The same approach was used in approving Gatwick's expansion just months later. This is precisely the kind of absurdity that the principles established in the Supreme Court's Finch judgment are intended to prevent.” 

Leigh Day partner Ricardo Gama, who represents LADACAN, said: 

“LADACAN does not believe that the High Court properly grappled with implications of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the landmark case of Finch and we are pleased that a panel of three judges in the Court of Appeal will reconsider this important issue.”