GK1981

https://www.londoncityairport.com/ne...for-expansion-

Jermyn

Fantastic news!

BA flights out of LCY are an absolute joy. 2-2 seating, great pax to crew ratio and hot food in Y ^

I'm also quite excited at the prospect of this: "It will also open up opportunities for airlines for longer-haul destinations including The Gulf and Middle East..."

I'd love to see the return of the QR A319

flatlander

There, there, Londoners, it wasn't that painful was it?

Take a deep breath and try Heathrow next year.

South London Bon Viveur

Great news. As I read it though no runway extension- just more capacity, so little chance of heavier jets flying there.

London_traveller

I can't see mention of a runway extension, so assume the airport is still limited to the aircraft types it currently serves.

So when they mention the Middle East, it's in a similar vein to the CWLCY service I assume. Is that a viable market for business-only traffic? The NYC route is a different market entirely.

dnajockey

Excellent news. My last trip through a couple of weeks ago was very smooth.

PUCCI GALORE

I can't imagine them expanding the airport without extending the runway?

Kgmm77

I recall reading somewhere that a runway extension would require not just road re-routing but felling a few towers in Canary Wharf and Blackwall to meet the glide slope requirements.

The parallel taxiway is the real key benefit along with more gate space. This will improve delays at peak times.

KARFA

I think if you were to extend it would have to be at the east end of the runway to avoid exactly that issue - although I don't know how feasible that would be.

flatlander

The main constraints on LCY's operation at the moment are (in rough order of decreasing significance, as I understand it):

Number of aircraft stands
Passenger terminal size (being worked on, apart from CADP)
Runway occupancy by taxiing aircraft at peak time (hence taxiway).

You can see more here:
https://www.londoncityairport.com/ab...rate/page/cadp

This is all with the current runway and therefore permitted aircraft types.

MHendo84

I would assume not that feasible, as the Steve Redgrave Bridge would need to be demolished and the residents of the flats would have a even better view of the runway

winchpete

The planning application concerned just about everything EXCEPT a longer runway.

hcuk94

Great news for a great airport.
Now can we expand all the other 'London' airports please?

ratypus

No runway extension - nowhere to extend it to: one end is a large dock, the other is the navigable stretch of the Thames...


This will be expansion for the passenger terminal (which is over-crowded), a few more stands for planes, and crucially an additional taxi-way so that planes no longer have to taxi up the runway to turn and take off (this is the airport's most serious limit on capacity at present; waste of runway time!).


I would expect we see some expansion from carriers already serving the airport - more BA leisure / ski destinations (they have expanded this in recent years) and continuing their addition of new European cities on a business schedule: to join the recent adds of Hamburg, Berlin etc. - e.g. we might see CPH, ARN, WAW added to from City?; perhaps some increased frequency from the likes of Alitalia / KLM. Probably nothing else that new & exciting.


I would be hugely surprised if anything for the Middle East comes out of this. It would have to be an all-business proposition on an A318/9 (similar to BA's service to JFK from City) which does not seem viable economically. Qatar couldn't make an all-business service work into LHR even with their wider ME and global feed, so I seriously doubt LCY could sustain that traffic (LCY is essentially an O&D airport, and really focused on the banking sector out of Canary Wharf & City, as opposed to multinationals etc. which all cluster to LHR & West / Central London).


As it is there are rumours that the BA to JFK does not perform all that well for BA - despite being point-to-point between the two most obvious finance hubs on the planet. No way will Middle East Work. By the way, even the JFK service cannot get off the short LCY runway with enough fuel, and stops to top up in Shannon on the way out - they use this time (on the morning flight at least) to do US immigration; no idea where or why a fuel stop to the ME out of LCY would work....

obduro

I suspect alluding to Gulf/Middle East routes as part of the press release is more of a sales pitch than anything else - as mentioned elsewhere the all-J QR A319 didn't work into LHR, not sure what has changed since that was canned.