Publicity article in Docklands on Richard Gooding and London City Airport
In charge of the skies: London City Airport’s Richard Gooding
how marvellous he is. How marvellous City airport is. How it raises money by
a charity walk for Richard House Ladies Walk. And so on.
lays out that by 2030 there is potential for 170,000 – 200, 000 flights a year
but Gooding says there will not be another runway. Fight the Flights campaigners
recently lost a High Court decision against Newham Council after it granted permission
to allow London City to increase flights up to 120,000 a year from 90,000.
“acquiesce” on reasonable grounds is part of his daily work.
hidden agenda.
be a shortage of aviation capacity. No one knows how to address it. If you have
a bit of that capacity you have something valuable. We are in a very dense part
of Europe. The problem is the opportunity at the same time.
these changes. It is a very exciting market. London is the business capital of
Europe, we are taking a larger mature share of it.”
it seems London City will stick to serving who it knows well – the upmarket business
traveller. Michael O’Leary’s Ryanair will not be making an appearance at the airport
as the planes wouldn’t fit on the runway but Gooding will add new upmarket leisure routes. Malaga and Faro will start in spring
and there are still some untapped business travel markets like Scandinavia, Germany
and cities such as Stockholm.
“We have been here longer than the majority of the population and they need to
get a new lawyer if they think they can do something about it.”