Legal Battle Over Barbuda Airport Construction To Continue in November

A long-running legal dispute over the construction of a new airport runway in Barbuda will extend into November, with the next court hearing scheduled for November 11, 2025.

Mussington and co-applicant Jacklyn Frank are challenging the right of the Antigua and Barbuda Airport Authority, the Development Control Authority, and the Attorney General to proceed with airport construction without proper legal procedures.

The dispute centers on whether the two challengers have legal standing to question the Development Control Authority’s decision to issue a development permit for the airport runway construction.

The case has already traveled through multiple court levels, including an appeal to the Privy Council, before returning to the current proceedings.

At the heart of the matter lies a 2018 development permit issued by the DCA for airport construction that began in 2017. The challengers initially won permission to seek judicial review and obtained an interim injunction to halt construction, but the Court of Appeal later overturned that injunction.

A subsequent 2018 application for another interim injunction was denied by the High Court in February 2020. The Court of Appeal ultimately ruled that Mussington and Frank lacked standing to pursue judicial review of the DCA’s permit decision.

The November hearing will address challenges to the qualifications of environmental experts hired by the challengers. The Attorney General has been ordered to submit all applications in writing by July 24, 2025, rather than presenting them orally.

The hearing will also determine whether the challengers’ environmental experts meet the court’s standards and whether the case can proceed to address the underlying questions about development permits and legal standing.