Gatwick Airport: Travel chaos as Just Stop Oil protestors block South Terminal as group takes action at airports across world

Members of the environmental protest group entered the South Terminal at about 8am on Monday (29 July) and "used suitcases with lock-on devices to block the departure gates", Just Stop Oil said in a statement. The action is part of the "Oil Kills international uprising", the group said, taking action at airports around the world.

A London Gatwick spokesperson said: “London Gatwick is open and operating normally today. There are a small number of protestors at the airport who have now been arrested and are being removed from the airport.”

In a statement, Sussex Police said eight people were arrested on suspicion of interfering with public infrastructure, and added "a heightened police presence should be expected at this time". A video posted by Just Stop Oil shows travellers walking over the activists, whose hands were seen inside the lock-on devices.

The group said in a statement: "As long as political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action to protect our communities from the worst effects of climate breakdown, Just Stop Oil supporters, working with other groups internationally, will take the proportionate action necessary to generate much needed political pressure. This summer, areas of key importance to the fossil fuel economy will be declared sites of civil resistance around the world."

It comes after two Just Stop Oil activists were found guilty of criminal damage last week after throwing soup over Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting. Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, both aged 22, threw a can of Heinz tomato soup over the masterpiece at the National Gallery in London in October 2022.