It has been a busy 12 months for London City Airport. The arrival of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), along with the addition of many new routes and a healthy boost in passenger numbers, has meant that the capital's own airport has truly come of age.
As regular business travellers will know, getting to the airport is half the battle. At London City this is now a relatively painless process, as a result of London City being plumbed into the DLR network. Trains run every few minutes from the airport station – which is barely 50 yards along a covered walkway from the passenger terminal – to Bank in the City. You can change at Poplar for Canary Wharf or transfer at Canning Town for the Jubilee line to the West End. Travel times to the City and West End are typically between 20 and 30 minutes, making London City the closest airport to much of central London.
The DLR has proved extremely popular with passengers. "Originally we had no idea how many passengers would use the DLR, as we were forecasting blind," says airport managing director Richard Gooding. "While no accurate figures are yet available, we believe half of our passengers use it."
This is by far the highest percentage using public transport at any of the capital's airports. Gooding adds: "I can say that our car parking business is down by five per cent at a time when passenger numbers are up by 20 per cent, and it's noticeable that the local roads aren't as jammed up as before. In fact, surface access by all means has got better, so it's a step forward for us."
At the airport itself, there is more choice than ever. New routes take passengers to mainland Europe, Scandinavia and beyond. Over the past year there have been new services started by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to Copenhagen and Stockholm; Belgian airline VLM to the Isle of Man; Lufthansa to Dusseldorf and Stuttgart; and Eastern Airlines to Newcastle. BA Connect added flights to Milan Malpensa last spring and is set to begin services to Madrid at the end of October.
As a result, passenger numbers have shown above-average growth. This June, over 220,000 passengers use the airport, a 16.4 per cent increase compared with the same month last year, while July saw over 204,000 passengers pass through, a 20 per cent rise over 2005 (being a business airport, passenger volumes dip in the summer). This year London City expects to handle 2.4 million passengers, and hopes to exceed 3.5 million by 2015.
London City also seems to be regarded as a special case by some airlines – most notably BA Connect, the budget brand of British Airways. The carrier normally does not offer free catering, but it does so out of London City – and without charging more for tickets. Edinburgh is its main route from London City, but it also serves Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid (from the end of October).
What is significant about many of the routes out of London City is the opportunities they provide for onward connections. This was brought home to me recently when I took an evening BA Connect flight to Frankfurt. Arriving at a deserted Terminal 2, I realised I still had ample time to connect with fellow Oneworld's Qantas flight to Singapore and Sydney. In other words, had I been flying to that part of the world, it might have been easier to depart from London City rather than crowded Heathrow's Terminal 4.
Equally, had I taken a slightly earlier Lufthansa flight I could have connected with both it and fellow Star carrier Singapore Airlines to Singapore and the rest of Asia.
KLM and Air France offer links to the Skyteam network through Amsterdam and Paris CDG/Orly, while Lufthansa, Swiss and SAS link you to Star's global system through Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich. Using these European hubs, cities in areas out of range of London City – Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, as well as the US and Middle East – are accessible.
The Star member carriers are now the biggest users of London City, according to Gooding, which means travel agents can provide passengers with tickets that take the most convenient routing with, say, Swiss on the way out, and Lufthansa on the return.
Another advantage is that the cost of flights from London City has fallen. In the airport's early days, passengers had to pay business class fares. But today, flexible pricing is the norm, and although much depends on when you book and when you travel, you can find tickets from London City costing less than those from Heathrow or Gatwick. In particular, Swiss has good availability of keenly priced business class tickets to Geneva and Zurich.
VLM takes a different tack. It is the biggest single user of London City with 220 return flights a week covering Manchester, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Luxembourg and Jersey. It also uses London City as its own hub. Flight schedules enable the Belgian airline to fly passengers through London City between, for example, Luxembourg and the Isle or Man or from Manchester to Antwerp.
Along with the growth in routes has come increased flight frequency on a number of key links. There are now 14 flights a day between London City and Amsterdam, nine operated by VLM, and five by KLM.
Between London City and Edinburgh there are almost as many flights (16 on weekdays, with BA Connect or Scotairways) as there are from Heathrow (19 flights on weekdays operated by BA and Bmi). This route is a particular favourite with parliamentarians, bankers, lawyers and financiers.
London City's private jet business also continues to grow. Gooding says: "Corporate aviation is up by 40 per cent this year with Netjets our biggest customer." Unlike at Heathrow, executive jets are welcome. The Jet Centre is at the London end of the runway and can be reached swiftly and discreetly.
The largest jet plane using London City is the 110-seater four-engine BAe146, which is no longer in production. The airport has a steep approach and short runway so only a limited number of planes can land there. But London City is looking ahead by seeking approval for other aircraft. The Brazilian-made twin-engine Embraer 170 jet will be cleared to use it by next year, with the Embraer 190 jet likely to be cleared in two years' time.
The biggest news concerns the Airbus A318, which is expected to receive approval to use the airport by spring 2007. The A318 would enable an airline to operate non-stop flights to destinations like Rome, Vienna or Warsaw which are currently out of range of existing planes. Gooding says: "With the A318 we're moving away from regional jets to something more grown-up."
The airport's growth has put apron parking space under pressure. "100 per cent of our capacity is being used at peak times," says Gooding. The airport recently published a master plan which maps out how it can develop and expand to handle eight million passengers a year by 2030. London City is keen to point out that it doesn't need to change its restricted hours of operation (these are for environmental reasons) or build an additional runway. According to the plan, "growth will be accommodated by maximising use of the existing runway, improving flight occupancy and ensuring we continue to save time on the ground".
One thing that surprises most travellers is the fact that London City isn't owned by one of the big airport groups; it's in the hands of Irish entrepreneur Dermot Desmond, which may be why airport users report that the facility has a different feel and style to it than other European airports.
But the days of one-man ownership are coming to an end, as Dermot Desmond has put the airport up for sale. Says Gooding: "We are now of a size where we have outgrown a single shareholder investor. There has been a lot of interest in London City and a number of bids have been received. But whether we sell it will depend on what offers come along and the credibility of the buyers." For prospective new owners, it certainly seems a bright investment.
