This has been a busy year for London City airport, but with Luxair’s recent announcement that it will defect completely from Heathrow, the capital’s own airport can be said to have come of age. Luxair chose to consolidate its London operations at LCY because of the airport’s popularity.
A spokesperson for the airline says: “We took this decision [which takes effect on October 26] because more of our passengers flying the London-Luxembourg route prefer City to Heathrow. Since the early part of this year, passenger numbers on our flights to and from City increased by 26 per cent. Because most passengers fly point-to-point [ie: not making connections], they find that London City is an especially attractive airport.”
Similar feedback comes from travel-management firm CWT. Nigel Turner, UK public sector director, says: “In the past three years, we’ve seen a fall in business from Heathrow but an increase from City, so it suggests passengers are switching. Our passenger numbers to our customers’ top five destinations from City have leapt by anything between 31 per cent, in the case of Edinburgh, to 246 per cent for services to Zurich.
“Passengers want frequent flights, and there are many more flights from City than there used to be. Some routes are now served by two or three carriers so there’s more choice. Our customers also appreciate reduced check-in time and, in this regard, City is much better than the others.”
Last year, there were concerns that LCY was running out of space to accommodate its rapid growth, but new departure and gate areas opened in June and these have provided passengers and planes with more room to breathe. There had been a particular problem in the departures area. That’s because, unlike many other airports, London City doesn’t have individual airline lounges for business class or full-fare passengers, which meant departing customers shared a common area once past the security checks. That set-up worked fine when the airport was less busy but in recent years it had become increasingly crowded as passenger numbers took off.
Richard Gooding, the airport’s chief executive, says: “We’ve opened up some much-needed accommodation by taking over what was previously the business centre and some back-office areas. After all, it’s the passengers who pay our wages, so we can no longer be accused of providing limited space.”
The extended lounge comprises different zones with another 250 seats and extra retail outlets, bars and eateries. Free wifi is also planned both here and throughout the airport. The check-in hall at ground level can’t easily be enlarged, but space for handling the growing passenger numbers is being found by replacing some airline desks with self-service machines.
Gooding says: “We are investing in common-use machines [ie not restricted to a particular airline] because one system is more efficient.
Many passengers already check themselves in either online or by using the machines, because of the profile which shows that 65 to 70 per cent are business travellers and 50 per cent of all passengers are travelling with hand-baggage only.”
Four new departure gates have been added at a cost of £30 million, as the existing terminal is now being extended eastwards. The new area occupies a 20,000-sqm platform over the King George V dock. These developments have won approval from VLM, the airport’s biggest user.
Johan Vanneste, the carrier’s managing director, says: “The expansion of the airport’s departure lounge and airport parking is ensuring that London City can cater for the growing number of business travellers who use our services.”
Gooding says: “We now have capacity for five million passengers, so to make full use of everything we have, we have applied to uplift the number of plane movements [defined as a landing or take-off] from 80,000 to 120,000.”
All the three main alliances (Oneworld, Star Alliance and Skyteam) are represented at London City. Of these, Skyteam (comprising Air France, KLM, Cityjet and VLM – now owned by the Air France/KLM grouping) have 50 per cent of the passengers, with Oneworld and Star both with a 25 per cent share.
“Having quality brand names is important,” says Gooding. “The fact that we routinely see ‘grown-up’ names on the [plane] tails has done a lot for passenger confidence. Customers are increasingly concerned about financial stability [in the industry].”
One of the more significant developments this year has been seen at British Airways. The airline has been slow to serve London City, but it’s now making up for lost time by launching a raft of interesting routes. It now flies to ten destinations with a 14-strong fleet of BAe 146s. Besides “bread and butter” destinations such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Amsterdam, these include Nice, Barcelona, Madrid and Warsaw (the first destination in the former Eastern Bloc to be served from City airport).
As it builds up the number of international routes, British Airways is finding that canny Scottish passengers bound for mainland Europe have started using LCY. It’s usually an easier transfer point than Heathrow or Gatwick.
But British Airways’ big development will be the launch of transatlantic flights from London City in a year’s time (September 2009). BA plans to operate a service to New York up to twice a day using a long-range version of the Airbus A318.
The 32-seat “baby” Airbus will adopt an all-business class configuration with flat-bed seating. The service will make one stop westbound (probably at Shannon, where it’s hoped to pre-clear US customs and immigration) but will operate non-stop eastbound.
Gooding says: “This service has been driven by the demands of BA’s corporate customers. It will create new markets for us which wouldn’t otherwise be in our thinking.
“The main advantage is the saving in time. Compared with using London City, the time taken to get from Canary Wharf to Heathrow, plus the time you have to be there [in order to check-in] means you are wasting three hours.”
British Airways is expected to depart London City for New York in the late morning and late afternoon. The return flights from New York (the airport has yet to be decided) will depart in the evening, arriving into LCY at 0700 and 0930 the next day.
London City continues to grow at a fast pace. This year it expects to handle 3.5 million passengers – up from 2.9 million last year and 2.4 million in 2006. But will growth be hit by the credit crunch and city woes? Gooding says: “We are growing strongly, although not as much as before, but don’t believe the current slowdown will be permanent.”
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