London City Airport granted planning permission
3rd November 2008
London City Airport has been granted planning permission to increase the number of ‘flight movements' by 50 per cent.
The London Borough of Newham approved a request by the airport to raise its current ceiling of 80,000 movements to 120,000 per annum. This will allow passenger numbers to rise to more than 3.9 million with the number of jobs at the airport increasing by 1,000 to more than 5,000.
The airport has grown rapidly in recent years with passenger numbers rising by more than 20 per cent in 2006 and 2007. Both British Airways and Air France have expanded their operations at the airport and next year BA plans to open the first long haul route from London City to New York JFK.
The airport has already invested to create facilities to cope with higher volumes and in recent months has added four more aircraft stands and has almost doubled the size of the departure lounge.
Under the terms of the planning application there will be no changes to current operating hours.