London City airport – there may be a consultation about allowing flights on Saturday afternoons
There is speculation about London City airport consulting about changing the times on Saturday afternoons, when the airport is open. However, local group Hacan East says that, as far as they know, Newham Council has made no official announcement about the start of the public consultation into London City’s expansion plans, but they will be contacting the Council (10th February) to find out the position. The expectation is that instead of flights ending at 1pm on Saturdays, they would continue until 8.30pm. This would be deeply opposed by residents in the area, who suffer from considerable plane noise. It is thought that the airport applied for this, to Newham Council, in December. City Airport previously tried to extend Saturday flight times to 22:00, but backtracked after a public consultation in late 2022. 70% of responses to that consultation opposed any expansion. The airport also wants 12 extra Saturday flights between 18:30 and 19:30 in the summer months, and 3 more planes taking off each morning. And it hopes to increase the yearly cap on passengers from 6.5 million to 9 million.
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London City Airport: Consultation on extra flights
10th February 2023
By Josh Mellor, LDRS (Local Guardian)
There is nothing on the London City Airport website about this consultation – so it may not b e happening, though the papers think it is …. (AW comment)
London City Airport is consulting east Londoners until the end of the month on its plans to introduce thousands of extra flights on Saturday afternoons.
In December, the airport submitted an application to Newham Council proposing to extend its Saturday cut-off time for flights from 1pm to 6:30pm.
The plans also include twelve Saturday flights allowed between 6:30pm and 7:30pm during the summer months.
City Airport has now backtracked on proposals to extend Saturday flight times to 10pm following public consultation it carried out last year.
Although the airport admitted local communities have “legitimate concerns” about noise, it is still proposing to extend Saturday flight times by up to seven hours.
A report on their previous consultation, which received more than 5,000 responses, said their new proposals “balance” public concerns with the “operational and business needs” of the airport and its airlines.
The overwhelming concerns for most people were the effect extra flights would have on noise, air quality and climate change.
The report showed that 70% of people commenting online did not support passenger increases “at all”.
Taking into account the views of people consulted at “events” and passengers travelling through the airport, 40% did not support any passenger increase.
Although the airport is not proposing to increase its 111,000 annual flight limit, it is hoping to increase the annual cap on passengers from 6.5million to 9million.
By comparison, in 2019, it saw about 84,000 flights on its runways, carrying a total of 5.1 million passengers.
Other proposals include allowing nine planes to take off or land between 6:30am and 6:59am each morning, an increase of three.
Flights taking off from City Airport often travel over East London areas such as Bow and Poplar, Leyton, Leytonstone, Wanstead, Barkingside and Romford.
Changes to London’s multiple flight paths in 2016 led to some Leyton residents complaining of “horrendous” noise levels because they are often also below flights travelling to Heathrow.
London City Airport has promised to only use “cleaner, quieter, new generation” aircraft during the extended hours.
But campaigner group HACAN East, set up to oppose the airport’s expansion, argue that these aircraft are only quieter during take-off because they rise at a “steeper angle”, with less noticeable improvements to noise during the rest of the flight.
Newham Council, which is considering the formal planning application, has now opened a statutory public consultation that will close on 27th February.
The full plans are now available to view and comment on Newham’s website by searching for planning reference “22/03045/VAR”.
Why does the airport want more Saturday flights?
City Airport said it is hoping to extend permitted flight hours to “offer more leisure routes” and hub connections earlier in the day as well as “potentially lower fares”.
Later Saturday cut-off hours could also bring in flights from “more distant locations”.
It also wants to “incentivise” airlines to invest in quieter and more fuel-efficient aircraft, particularly British Airways City Flyer which is based at the airport.
It argues that if no changes are allowed growth would be suppressed, “current inefficiency” of aircraft use would continue and “noise benefits” would be slower.
https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/23313137.london-city-airport-consultation-extra-flights/
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Currently the airport’s operating hours are 4.45am to 10pm Monday to Friday, 4.45am to 1pm on Saturday, and 11am to 10pm on Sunday.
https://www.londoncityairport.com/opening-hours
Information from local campaign group, Hacan East at
http://www.hacaneast.org.uk/home
London City Airport plans extra weekend flights
10.2.2023 (BBC)
The changes would see the cut-off time for flights extended to 18:00. Extra flights could be set to take off from London City Airport on Saturday afternoons.
The airport proposed extending its Saturday cut-off time for flights from 13:00 to 18:30 in an application to Newham Council in December.
It said the changes would allow it to introduce “potentially lower fares” but some residents have expressed concerns about noise levels.
A public consultation on the plans is taking place.
City Airport, which is based at the Royal Docks in Newham, previously tried to extend Saturday flight times to 22:00, but backtracked after a public consultation last year.
The consultation received more than 5,000 responses from local residents and showed that the most common concerns were about the effect extra flights would have on noise, air quality and climate change.
Seventy percent of people commenting online about the proposals did not support passenger increases “at all”.
City Airport said the changes would enable it to offer “more leisure routes” and bring in flights from “more distant locations”.
It also argued that the changes could “incentivise” airlines to invest in quieter and more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Local residents have expressed concerns about rising noise levels
But campaign group HACAN East, set up to oppose the airport’s expansion, argues that while these aircraft are quieter during take-off, there are less noticeable improvements to noise levels during the rest of the flight.
Flights taking off from City Airport travel over parts of east London such as Bow and Poplar, Leyton, Leytonstone, Wanstead, Barkingside and Romford.
The airport is also proposing that 12 extra Saturday flights be allowed between 18:30 and 19:30 during the summer months, and increasing the number of planes taking off each morning by three.
Although the airport is not seeking to increase its 111,000 annual flight limit, it is hoping to increase the yearly cap on passengers from 6.5million to 9 million.
The public consultation will close on 27 February.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64581118
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How the boss of London City plans to revolutionise airport security
Robert Sinclair wants to use state-of-the-art technology to transform travel experience
By Oliver Gill, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (Telegraph)
28 January 2023
The first part of the article is just about airport security systems.
The boosterism comes as Sinclair prepares for a possible battle with Newham Council over plans to expand the operating hours of the central London airport.
The airport suffered a bruising response to a consultation on lifting its annual passenger cap from 6.5 million to 9 million last summer.
Sinclair and his team recut the plans and have put them out to a fresh consultation that will come to a head in the coming weeks.
Sinclair wants to increase the frequency of flights running during the popular morning rush between 6.30am and 7am from six to nine.
In addition, the airport wants to extend Saturday operations, which currently end at 12.30pm, to 6.30pm with an option to extend to 7.30pm during summer months. Sunday flying will remain the same with services beginning at 12.30pm.
The package of changes are intended to entice airlines to bring larger aircrafts to London City, allowing it to welcome more passengers while running the same number of flights.
“We’re asking to make minor changes to our existing conditions,” insists Sinclair. “There’s a whole series of things that we’re not asking to change.
“We’re not asking to change the number of flights. The number of flights that we can handle in any year is 111,000.
“The key to the future evolution of London City is larger aircraft. So in simple mathematical terms, within the current permitted number of flights, we can handle more passengers.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, noise campaigners are not convinced.
“Quieter planes are always a good thing,” says John Stewart from HACAN, which calls for better noise control close to airports in the south-east. “But the new planes are not quite what they seem.
“The planes are up to six decibels quieter, but only on departure and only for areas within about four miles from the airport.
“Six decibels is significant and will be noticed by residents.”
Newham Council will be the ultimate arbiter to the airport’s proposals. A spokesman for the council says its strategic development committee will consider London City’s plans once the consultation and planning assessment is completed.
Sinclair and his team are tight-lipped on whether they think they will get the green light or not. But industry sources believe Rokshana Fiaz, the Labour mayor of Newham, will stand in the way of the airport’s plans.
Proposals to build a new terminal building on reclaimed land over the Royal Albert Docks were backed by Newham Council under the Fiaz’s predecessor only for the then mayor Boris Johnson to reject them as he persisted with his dream of a new airport in the Thames Estuary.
The airport emerged victorious, however, as housing minister Greg Smith backed the plans and Sadiq Khan even quietly dropped his opposition shortly after taking over from Johnson.
London City is also pushing for a Crossrail station at London City one day. Pleas for a stop in the initial development fell on deaf ears – despite the Elizabeth Line burrowing close to the airport’s runway. All the more galling there is a stop at Custom House, next to the ExCel conference centre around a mile away.
“It’s very disappointing,” says Sinclair. “It’s a very significant missed opportunity which we have not lost sight of.
“We understand that it’s not going to be something that’s going to be developed in the short term, but it is on our long term objectives.
“We’ve certainly had that discussion with TfL. And they agree that that is a very, very sensible improvement to the Elizabeth line, particularly when you can see just how close it is to our terminal.”
Launching commercial services in 1988, London City is the newest of the “London” airports – but arguably the only one that can lay claim to being in the capital rather than on the outskirts or beyond.
Sinclair says many of his customers use London City in conjunction with other airports, strengthening the case for an Elizabeth Line stop.
“Many, many people are using London City to fly out or fly in and Heathrow to fly in or fly out. In other words, they’re connecting in and out of London using both airports.” A 45-minute Elizabeth Line service currently runs directly between Custom House and Heathrow.
“And so there is a real opportunity given that the Elizabeth Line connects to both airports to that cross-London connectivity.”
In common with the rest of the aviation sector, London City was rocked by the pandemic as travel restrictions brought operations to a standstill. Covid made a mockery of long-held investment banker claims that airports were “recession proof”.
Some 908,000 people flowed through the airport during 2020, falling to 721,000 the following year. Prior to the pandemic, London City had welcomed 5.1 million passengers.
In 2022, a year that was still scarred by the omicron variant, 3 million people passed through the terminal.
In the 1990s, London City Airport was close to collapse before Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond stepped in and masterminded a remarkable turnaround.
Desmond, also famed for owning a stake in Manchester United before selling out to the American Glazer family, paid just £23m for London City in 1995. The investment was seen as little more than a long-odds bet for the horse racing enthusiast.
At the time, nearby Canary Wharf had called in receivers and the Docklands area was suffering in the wake of recession.
The punt paid off. Desmond sold the business 11 years later for £750m as the airport established itself as a firm favourite among investment bankers, accountants and lawyers that work in London’s Square Mile.
Today it is owned by a collection of overseas pension, infrastructure and sovereign wealth investors, who paid £2bn to acquire the business in 2016 from the private equity house that bought the business from Desmond.
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