London City looks to accommodate A320neo as application submitted
January 27, 2025
London City Airport has asked the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to authorise A320neo operations from the location, which it says it would facilitate the airport to reach its permitted elevated passenger capacity with fewer flight movements.
With the UK government having green-lighted London City’s plans in August 2024 to increase its annual passenger cap from 6.5 million to nine million by 2031 “as a driver of economic growth,” crucially, this came with the condition that no new infrastructure was to be installed and no additional flights would be permitted.
To facilitate A320neo operations, the airport is therefore asking the CAA to approve a new flight procedure to alter the approach angle for the aircraft type at each runway end. The current approach angle requires aircraft to be certified for a steep approach (with the glideslope originally set at 7.5 degrees, subsequently reduced to 5.5 degrees). London City is the only UK airport to require a steep approach capability.
CEO of London City Airport Alison Fitzgerald described the A320’s potential introduction as “incredibly exciting,” highlighting that it would “deliver much needed economic growth and accelerate re-fleeting to cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft”.
However, speaking in August 2024, Fitzgerald also expressed her disappointment that the airport had not been granted extended Saturday afternoon operating hours – something that would have exclusively caveated the use of what London City described as “cleaner, new generation aircraft to operate it any newly extended hours on a Saturday, and in any new flights in the first half hour of the day”. This, believed Fitzgerald, would have incentivised airlines to “replace older fleets with new generation aircraft to benefit from increased flexibility at the airport”.
With up to 194 seats at maximum capacity (although typically operated in an up to 180-seat two-class configuration), the A320neo delivers up to 20% better fuel efficiency compared to previous-generation models.
However, the proposal is unlikely to pass without challenge from local residents. In July 2023, an earlier bid for expansion was rejected by Newham Council’s strategic development committee; with Councillor Rachel Tripp stating that the outcome was “a tough decision but the right one” given noise and other objections from local residents. The council states it employs “a dedicated resource to monitor the airport’s compliance with their planning controls,” with the planning permission the airport operates under also seeking to mitigate its “impact on the local environment, including in terms of noise, air quality and surface access”.
The subject of airport capacity expansion at London City also comes in the week the UK government is expected to make a statement about other London airport expansions, potentially supporting growth at Luton, Heathrow and Gatwick.
