London City Airport (IATA: LCY, ICAO: EGLC) is a single-runway airport, intended for use by STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) airliners, and principally serving the financial districts of London. It is located on a former Docklands site, in the London Borough of Newham in East London, and was developed by the private engineering company Mowlem in 1986/87.
History
The airport was first proposed in 1981 by Hines Ward - Chief Executive of the newly formed London Docklands Development Corporation. He in turn disscussed the proposal with Sir Philip Beck (Chairman of John Mowlem & Co plc), and the idea of an airport for Docklands was born. Mowlem and Brymon airways submit to LDDC an outline proposal for a Dockland STOLport city centre gateway, in November 1981; and on 27th June 1982 Brymon Captain Harry Gee landed a Dash 7 aircraft on Heron Quay to demonstrate the feasibility of the STOLport project. After planning permission problems and a public enquiry, construction finally began on the site (the former Royal Docks) in 1986, with the Prince of Wales laying the first stone of the terminal building. [1]
Queen Elizabeth II officially opened London City Airport in November 1987 and it since has become recognised as one of Europe's leading airports for business travel.
It has subsequently been extended in three significant stages. The runway was lengthened and the angle of glideslopes was reduced from 7.5 to 5.5 degrees, still relatively steep for a European airport. The western apron was enlarged and a turning loop built in 2003 at the eastern end of the runway.
Over 1.9 million passengers used the airport in 2005 [2] and its management believes that economic development nearby will sustain a potential for over five million passengers per annum. Domestic routes to Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Dundee, the Isle of Man and Jersey complement international services.
It has become a useful adjunct to London's larger airports, particularly for workers frequenting Docklands, and has met its operating costs in recent years. It is an important element in the Newham labour market and, together with the nearby ExCeL Exhibition Centre, has stimulated a local surge of hotel building. On the other hand the airport flight path restricts the maximum height of new skyscrapers in and around Canary Wharf, and the management keeps a close watch on planning applications for tall buildings in the area.
Passenger access to the City of London is facilitated by a branch of the Docklands Light Railway from Canning Town, which opened in December 2005. Initially shuttle and London Bus services connected the airport to Canning Town and beyond, however they have since been withdrawn.
Airlines and destinations
The airport is unusual to the extent that, from the opening day, stringent rules were imposed on the noise impact acceptable from each aircraft departure. This, together with the physical dimensions of the runway, limits the range of aircraft types that are acceptable to the airport and planning authorities. This also affects the running times of the airport allowing it to only operate between 5:30 and 21:30 Monday to Friday, with an even more restricted service on Saturday and Sunday.
Typical mid-range airliners seen here include the ATR42, DHC Dash 8, BAe-146 Whisperjet, Dornier 328, Fokker 50 and Saab 2000. Corporate aircraft such as the Beechcraft Super King Air, Cessna Citation, Raytheon Hawker 400 and 800, and variants of the Dassault Falcon bizjet are increasingly common, but larger or noisier types are not permitted. Helicopters are also denied access for environmental reasons. The earliest scheduled flights were operated by De Havilland Canada Dash 7s and Dornier 228 aircraft with Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam being the initial destinations. The size of the airport, constrained by the water-filled Royal Albert and King George V docks to the north and south respectively, means that there are no covered maintenance facilities for aircraft. Passengers are likely to perceive the compact terminal as a benefit.
The following airlines fly to London City Airport:
- Air France
- Cityjet (Dublin, Paris-Charles De Gaulle, Paris-Orly)
- British Airways
- Cirrus Airlines (Munich)
- Darwin Airline (Berne, Lugano)
- Eastern Airways (Newcastle)
- EuroManx (Isle of Man)
- KLM
- Lufthansa
- Luxair (Luxembourg)
- OLT (Bremen)
- SAS (Copenhagen, Stockholm)
- Scot Airways (Dundee, Edinburgh)
- Swiss International Air Lines
- VLM Airlines (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liverpool, Luxembourg, Manchester (UK), Rotterdam)
London City Airport Today
Although in recent years passenger travel has been constant throughout all the seasons, LCY is still at its busiest during the winter months. With the same influx of business travellers, the winter months also see a rise in travellers to winter destinations and ski resorts run by Swiss Airlines.
London City Airport is relatively small compared to the other 4 London International Airports but has proved vital for thousands of business travellers from London's Docklands and financial district. Inside the terminal there are only 26 check-in desks plus an extra 5 self-service kiosks for BA, Air France and Lufthansa. Unlike other large airports travellers benefit from the quick turnarounds and the short pier, enabling travellers to check-in up to 30 minutes before takeoff. There are 3 car hire desks, operated by Avis, Europcar and Hertz. Plus a Chauffeur hire car desk operated by Quay Cars. The terminal has both landside and airside restaurants and cafes, plus duty free shops airside. The whole terminial is WiFi enabled.1.
KLM Ground Service company KGS handles most check-in and ticketing for most airlines, with the exception of Scot Airways, who are handled by Menzies and Air France who handle themselves. Ticketing for Luxair, VLM and Lufthansa are also handled by their own companies. The KGS ticket desk is located to the left of the front doors and the Scot Airways/Luxair/Lufthansa/Air France ticket desk is located in the centre of the landside area.
Their are nine gates at London City Airport and a further five stands connected via an airside bus. Again, KGS handles most of the boarding with Air France and Scot Airways boarding themselves.
The check-in, boarding and operations network for the airport is run by SITA, on their CUTE network. This allows for any workstation to be used for any purpose. The SITA CUTE system is supported by ESP engineers 24/7.
Outside there are two car parks, one for short stay and one for long stay, free valet parking and a new administration building called City Aviation House, which opened in 2004.
London City Airport also has what is believed to be the closest private jet centre to central London, which in 2005 was voted by European Business Air News, as the the best corporate aviation passenger handling facilities in Europe.
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_City_Airport under GFDL
