The publication of its “Master Plan” has been announced by London City Airport (LCY), originally set for March, and which talks about providing capacity for 11m passengers.

2019 was a record year with 5,122,271 (+6%) travellers passing through.  2020, as with all airports, has been a disaster although for January and February, the numbers, around 350,000 were on par with 12 months previous.  Since that time throughput has dived with the airport closed in April, May and for most of June.  Even in summer months the numbers were paltry running about 95% mainly due to the loss of business traffic and problems with the holiday destinations.  2020 will not top 900,000 passengers.

In the meantime, the parallel taxiway has been structurally completed but the terminal re-build has stopped.  The remote tower is technically operational but awaits certification.  Opinion seems to be that given the numbers likely to pass through in next few years the facilities are fine, no executive lounges, but for those who demand privacy the Private Jet Centre is available, at a charge.  

The airport Master Plan says that it will grow within its existing noise contour limit and seeks to reduce its area over time by operating more cleaner, quieter, new generation of aircraft.  The idea of an extension of the existing eight-hour night time flight curfew has been dropped and likewise plans to seek to extend its weekend operating hours.

At the present time British Airways CityFlyer has very limited service on key routes to Belfast City, Edinburgh and Frankfurt, with little or no further news, KLM is daily to Amsterdam, Luxair to Luxembourg, Loganair to Dundee, LOT to Vilnius.  

The future for London City largely rests on how quicky Canary Wharf begins to get back to anything like normal, although the massive residential developments in that corner of London will bring with it considerable leisure traffic.  A Crossrail station nearby would demonstrate the Mayor of London's confidence in the airport for little money and non-stop flights to New York with the A220 could raise the airport’s profile in North America.  The original BA 001 via Shannon certainly did.

www.londoncityairport.com

London City Airport - 30 years serving the capital

A PDF copy of the Master Plan can be retrieved via the airport's media centre.