[StephenLondon]

Major boost for UK and London economy as London City Airport receives planning permission for expansion
27/07/2016

London City Airport has today received planning permission for expansion from the UK Government which will enable the airport to welcome 6.5 million passengers by 2025 and inject £1.5 billion each year into the economy.

The City Airport Development Programme (CADP) is a £344 million privately funded investment which includes plans for 7 new aircraft stands, a parallel taxiway and passenger terminal extension.

The development will transform the airport, one of East London’s largest employers in London’s Royal Docks, enabling the airport to welcome quieter, next generation aircraft and add more capacity. Last year the airport, which opened in 1987, welcomed a record-breaking 4.3 million passengers.

Philip Hammond MP, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Aviation Minister, confirmed the Government’s approval during a visit to the airport, following confirmation from Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid.

Declan Collier, CEO, London City Airport:

“Today, the new Government has shown it is ready to act in the best interests of the British economy. Expansion at London City Airport will create more than 2,000 new jobs in East London, add much-needed aviation capacity in the South East, and generate an additional £750m per year for the UK economy. As the airport serving by far the highest proportion of business travellers in the UK (52%), who do some £11bn of trade in Europe annually, today the Government has sent a strong message that London and the UK are very much open for business. I welcome the decision and look forward to delivering new airport capacity for the South East by 2019.”

The construction phase of development will create 500 jobs and a further 1,600 jobs once completed. Under the plans the airport can add approximately a further 32,000 flights by 2025, movements which are already permitted, helping to unlock more air capacity within London’s airport system in advance of a new runway for the South East of England.

It will also open up opportunities for airlines for longer-haul destinations including The Gulf and Middle East, Turkey, Russia and the east coast of the United States.

[Gin&Tonic]

Great but when will government deal with the elephant in the room? LHR LGW or None

[openfly]

Anybody with a property in the Docklands area will be so chuffed at this news!
Plus, when LCY is operating Easterly, all those living between Battersea and the airport will suffer from the extra noise.

There might even be a BA lounge in the expansion. No, silly me, they need the space for Gucci handbag shops!

[PeterCoultas]

great news – although another forum makes it clear that new owners have rather spoilt LCY though the negative is that the expansion is by private capital and Openfly is almost certainly correct about unnecessary Gucci plastic look handbags.

Short transfers from Stratford does mean decent accessibility and even from St Pancras & HS rail: however awful the new security will be it will be difficult to match the horrors of Gatwick or the appalling mess that is LHR.

Time for another sensible decision: a well thought out completely new airport somewhere north of London on a HS line somewhere near Northampton with the will to build it in less than a decade

[FaroFlyer]

PeterCoultas,

Building in less than a decade is easy. Building in less than 5 years is possible.

Making a decision in less than 25 years is the hard part, in the UK.

[PeterCoultas]

FaroFlyer: how right you are – maybe it is because we are not chinese ?

[MarcusGB]

The current state of LCY would not benefit much even if all this were in place now.

Having flown in and out in the last few months almost weekly, the aircraft are simply clogged up on the ground.
I counted 14 aircraft due to depart in 15 minutes at 8-9am on a weekday as i was leaving. Needless to say half of all flights were delayed by 30+ minutes to 2 hrs, mainly it seemed BA to holiday reports and Alitalia.

As one of the Cityjet staff said to me “This used to be a Business airport, and all the leisure flights now it can no longer be said to be. Morale is very low, and many people have left or are very unhappy”.

More people also fly to Amsterdam than ever with onward connections intercontinental with Emirates surprisingly, and also KLM. I cannot understand why KLM have not put their very smart Embraers on this route, to increase capacity up to 100 per flight, and replace these very old, frequently delayed and not very clean, Cityjet flights. They would have quite a profit. So the amount of leisure travellers is very high on this route, and often there are arguments of luggage size, or even capability to take a carry on bag on these Avro aircraft. Often bags have to be tagged so those connecting to Africa flights especially cannot have their hand baggage until they reach Lagos!

Check in with self tagging baggage is leading to many overweight bags, oversized carry ons being taken on board. This is shocking at the gate and on board, so the “Self Service” of LCY now actually is leading to many delays.Another fault of LCY.
The current check in area, i counted over 300 waiting in lines to check in!
The state of the toilets are simply disgusting, insufficient for the airport, in a bad state of repair, and this has been getting worse also. They are the filthiest on every entry or exit through LCY, of any airport i have seen in Europe.
Poorly Supervised, badly managed, a basic of hygiene placing risks to passengers with a lack of cleanliness being spread throughout the airport.

Even with the expansion, the current owners attitude about shoving in retail areas more upmarket and hardly used, has taken away valuable walking area air side.
The shops are hardly used with a luxury baggage store, and very limited L shape dixons, selling no basics at all.
One restaurant is hardly used, grossly overpriced, and seats are extremely difficult to find from early am until eve all day now. Fine if you are on your own.
It is VERY unpleasant, unless you arrive Into LCY as others have commented.

How about the expansion of the local roads to cater for this demand? = Cannot be done, and the access from the A406 will never be able to be grown.

Local trains DLR , Tube? = Not possible or planned.

Car Parking? = Already maximised, cannot be expanded…if you want to pay £49 per 24 hrs!! The local estate where many park along a stretch where residents are not affected, is already chocker.

I cannot see more medium or long haul flights coming into LCY. 7 stands and a taxiway may be helpful, but even capacity of terminals and all the functions needed, and the work, will create havoc.
The greed of the current owners has shifted the Airport reputation as a whole, trying to extract more retail money, ridiculous parking charges, and charges to pick up and drop off, as well as taxis!
At the same time, BA has dragged so many tourist destinations into there it is more of a holiday travel airport now.

In the current style with the current owners and management, this “Expansion” will Not go well, and never be as it was again. I will not be considering it for future travel now, as many on this forum have evidenced, all the same issues.

The locals will dread the work, congestion, noise and disruptions, as i do not even having to allow 1.5 hrs at Least, to check in, security and ensure i will be on my flight. This means 2.5 hrs minimum from Nearby to drive, from North London!

[LuganoPirate]

I hope the building work will not be too disruptive…

[Daytripper]

BA lounge anyone, or does the expansion simply spell more missing-the-mark shops and dull catering offerings, rather than something that business travellers actually want?

[LuganoPirate]

I know each to his own, but I like the restaurant to the right of the transit lounge facing the apron. I can always get a seat there and quite like the menu.

I also used to like the upstairs restaurant before security but that’s now gone to make way for the new entrance and area for removing liquids etc.

[Author]

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