News:
4.5 million passengers used London City Airport in 2017 with Amsterdam no.1 destination following 16% growth on route
London City Airport has published its annual passenger figures for 2017, showing that over 4.5 million passengers used London’s most convenient airport last year.
In total 4,511,107 passengers arrived to, or departed from, London City Airport in 2017, with strong growth on specific routes including Amsterdam, which saw a 16% year-on-year increase in passengers, becoming the airport’s most popular route, thanks to the return of KLM in January 2017 and increased frequencies by Flybe.
The airport’s Milan Linate services also performed well, jumping from the 10th busiest route to the 5th most popular, with a 37% increase in passengers, driven by the start of services by British Airways in April, joining the existing Alitalia operations.
There was also a 3% increase in passengers on the Frankfurt route, operated by Lufthansa and British Airways, and a 4% increase for Zurich operations by British Airways and SWISS Airlines, which introduced the Bombardier C Series in August.
While year-on-year growth from 2016 was flat, CEO Robert Sinclair says business remains buoyant, with the number of passengers travelling through London City up by nearly 50% since 2012, and strong growth expected to resume in 2018.
Robert Sinclair, CEO of London City Airport, said:
“Once again London City Airport’s annual passengers have exceeded 4.5 million, with the introduction of several new routes and continued close working with the airlines to provide further opportunities for growth.
“We are very confident about the long-term prospects for growth at London City Airport. This is reflected by our decision late last year to commence the £480 million development programme. This programme will transform the airport over the next four years, adding much needed capacity at peak, substantially enhancing the overall facilities and providing much more choice and flexibility for passengers, at a time when the London airport system is already highly congested.”
Over the course of 2017, three new airlines commenced operation – KLM, TAP Portugal and VLM Airlines – and five new destinations were added to the route map – Lisbon, Manchester, Prague, Reykjavik and Skiathos. TAP will also start a six-times-a-week Porto service from 25 March 2018.
The top five routes by passenger numbers in 2017 were:
- Amsterdam [595,000]
- Edinburgh [483,000]
- Dublin [468,000]
- Zurich [401,000]
- Milan Linate [247,000]