A court appeal over plans to expand Bristol airport drew a protest by climate campaigners.
North Somerset Council rejected the expansion in 2020 on environmental grounds, but was later overruled by the government’s Planning Inspectorate.
Expansion would allow the airport to handle 12 million passengers a year, up from 10 million.
The airport insists the move would also reduce millions of road journeys made to London airports each year.
The two-day hearing, which began at Bristol’s Civil Justice Centre, is examining whether the Planning Inspectorate acted correctly when granting planning permission in February.
The appeal has been mounted by the Bristol Airport Action Network, which argues that planning inspectors were wrong to ignore the impact expansion of the airport would have on climate change.
But the inspectorate, which is an agency of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, says a local planning decision cannot overturn national government policy.
It says the UK’s aviation policy is not against regional airport growth.
More than 100 people demonstrated outside the court before the hearing opened on Tuesday, the BBC reported.
An airport spokesperson said the plans “would allow thousands of jobs to be created and open up new direct links and support inbound tourism”.