London city airport ready to seize new trade

A decision to the application is due next month from Newham Council and, with many London-bound carriers tiring of Heathrow, the result will arouse interest.

Announcing the closure of Heathrow routes this week, assistant vice president of sales at Luxair Frank Schmit told The Wharf the move was obvious, particularly in respect of their business passengers.

He said: “As a national carrier we want to link Luxembourg with financial centres in capital cities.

“We try to optimise all our connections to give the best service to our customers. We want to bring customers to the heart of London and that was not happening at Heathrow.

“They want the convenience of flying in in the morning, doing their business and returning at night.�

Luxair has four slots at London City and two at Heathrow. Passenger figures at City have risen by 26 per cent in the last year at the expense of Heathrow and bosses have decided to close its routes at the west London airport in October. It will increase plane sizes on its City routes.

The news comes as City Airport is hoping to increase its flight cap from 80,000 a year to 120,000 a year.

It is believed that Newham will give a decision on the planning application next month.

If agreed, the limit will be imposed until 2010, at which time City hopes to push for another increase in flights.

If the request receives approval, City Airport’s bosses do not believe it will have a problem filling the slots.

Luxair’s Mr Schmit agreed, and he told The Wharf: “By following a strategy for a regional carrier the only answer is London City. The routes are very popular and in the future we would want more slots at London City.�

Another airline keen to increase routes at City is British Airways. It has already added four routes this year, which were made available by a schedule reshuffle, and has the prospect of flights to New York planned for next year.

This month it also invested in two new A318 aircraft for use at the Royal Docks airport.
Another of Europe’s biggest airlines, Air France has also shown its intention to increase at City Airport.

Its proposed takeover of VLM, which is based at City and flies to 12 destinations, is going through regulatory clearance.

While Luxair bemoan the proximity of Heathrow to London, many have accused it of poor all-round performance.

Business group London First said Heathrow was “jeopardising the UK economy�, while the Association of European Airlines said nearly half of flights left or arrived from Heathrow 15 minutes late during the first three months of the year.