London City Airport (LCY) has submitted a planning application for permission to expand its current infrastructure to accommodate up to 120,000 flight movements (take offs and landings) per year, a level already permitted under an application granted in 2009.

The proposals will also allow the airport to double its passenger numbers (to six million) over the next 10 years, while continuing to attract inward investment into east London and acting as a catalyst for the regeneration of the area.

LCY - based in the Royal Docks and predominantly serving the business and political centres of Canary Wharf, The City and Westminster - currently handles 70,000 flight movements and three million passengers per annum. The need for enhanced and expanded infrastructure is driven by three factors:

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• The majority of passengers travelling through LCY are doing so for business reasons, and want to fly during the morning and evening peaks - freeing up capacity on the existing runway is the only way to meet demand and achieve the permitted level of movements.
• The next generation of aircraft, expected to arrive at the airport in 2016, are larger (and quieter and more fuel efficient) and require bigger parking stands.
• Increasing the capacity of the existing runway to allow more flights at peak, combined with larger aircraft, will mean greater numbers of passengers, all of whom will still want the convenience and time-saving of using LCY.

The £200m expansion planned for the airport includes new aeroplane parking stands - to accommodate larger aircraft - a parallel taxi lane to optimise runway capacity in peak operating hours, and a terminal extension to ensure that LCY's convenience and speed-of-transit propositions are maintained. Crucially, the airport is not proposing a second runway, or any extension to the existing runway.

Declan Collier, Chief Executive Officer, London City Airport, believes that the expansion of the airport is vital - not just to satisfy growing demand for business travel, but also for the ongoing development of the Royal Docks and the east of London.

He explained: "The airport currently employs just under 2,100 people, of which more than 60% are local. The proposed development has the potential to create as many as 1,500 new jobs, providing further employment in east London."

(CD/JP)