London City has released its annual traffic figures for 2017, with year-on-year passenger growth flat compared to 2016.
The airport welcomed 4,511,107 passengers last year, ever so slightly down on the 4,526,059 recorded the previous year.
But CEO Robert Sinclair said that business “remains buoyant”, with strong growth expected to resume in 2018.
“Once again London City Airport’s annual passengers have exceeded 4.5 million, with the introduction of several new routes and continued close working with the airlines to provide further opportunities for growth,” said Sinclair.
“We are very confident about the long-term prospects for growth at London City Airport. This is reflected by our decision late last year to commence the £480 million development programme.
“This programme will transform the airport over the next four years, adding much needed capacity at peak, substantially enhancing the overall facilities and providing much more choice and flexibility for passengers, at a time when the London airport system is already highly congested.”
The busiest route at the airport during 2017 was Amsterdam, with 595,000 passengers (up 16 per cent in part thanks to the return of KLM), followed by Edinburgh (483,000), Dublin (468,000), Zurich (401,000) and Milan Linate (247,000).
Five new destinations were added to the airport’s route map in 2017 – Lisbon, Manchester, Prague, Reykjavik and Skiathos – and this year TAP Air Portugal will launch flights to Porto in March.
