London City granted capacity expansion to nine million passengers a year
London City Airport has been granted a capacity expansion from 6.5 to nine million passengers per annum, with three extra flights during the week, although the government has rejected plans for extended Saturday afternoon operations.
The three extra flights will take place during the first half hour of operations during the existing Monday to Saturday schedule (from 6:00 to 6:30), raising the total from six to nine. The planning application did not seek to amend Sunday hours, which will remain unchanged at 12:30 to 22:00.
Although welcoming the approval to increase passenger numbers, CEO of London City Airport Alison FitzGerald commented: “As the government has recognised in its decision, rejecting our request to extend our Saturday afternoon opening hours will slow down airlines bringing cleaner, quieter next generation aircraft to the airport”.
As part of its proposals to extend Saturday afternoon services from 12:30 to 18:30 (submitted in 2022 to the London Borough of Newham), London City proposed a “first for a UK airport;” only seeking to permit “cleaner, quieter new generation aircraft to operate in any newly extended hours on a Saturday, and in any new flights in the first half hour of the day”.
The proposal suggested that this would “lead airlines to replace older fleets with new generation aircraft to benefit from increased flexibility at the airport,” which would in turn bring benefits to local residents throughout the entirety of the week’s operations.
