Behind the Scenes: London City Airport – Ramp Walk 1: Early Morning Walking
- Behind the Scenes: London City Airport: The Introduction
- Peak rush to London, aLoft ExCeL
- Morning time at LCY – Inspecting runway lights
- Ramp Operations
- At the JetCentre
- Ramp Walk 1 (THIS SECTION)
- Ramp Walk 2
- From the Tower
- Watery Inspections with the Fire Service
- Leaving London and Final Thoughts
Note – this section may take a bit to load – there’s a fair few photos coming up!
Heading away from the JetCentre and back to the main terminal, it was a case of making sure that the high visibility jacket was done up right (safety is a prime concern at LCY, and making sure your hi-viz jacked is done up at all times is very important), and following the walkway markers back to the main terminal building.
Morning sunrise after the rain at LCY.
As the airport has now turned from an inactive field to an active walkway, it’s important to stay within the designated walkways due to the busy traffic on stand and working the ramp/stands.
Passing through you see how busy the little airport is. Today seems like a good day for those who don’t like to be bussed as the bus fleet is sitting in situ
The LCY bussing fleet – a total of 3 buses
As we crossed from the JetCentre to the main apron, a BA CityFlyer service was coming in.
As you can see, space is tight first thing in the morning, so planes have to move with care and with guidance from the ground crew. Unlike most airports where planes dock at a hard stand facing the terminal, planes are guided in and turned whilst coming into their final position. This disposes the need of tugs for pushback purposes and creating faster turnaround times. The other reason – there’s simply not the space to handle tugs.
Closing in on the terminal building, a CityJet (ex VLM) Fokker 50 was preparing for depature – you can see the ground equipment at work here
Ground power for the Fokker.
Final checks waiting for departure
Loading buggies
Props turning – ready to leave.
One of the most interesting experiences I had at LCY was when we had to re-enter the terminal and go through the internation clearance section – passport control. By default I was heading to pull my passport out – but we kept walking through control.
Of course, I had forgot about the little guest identity card that was around my neck. Oops. 😉 But that was a first – going through passport control without a passport.
Taking a magical side door (of which there are plenty in this airport), we exited into the main depature area, and my hosts set me down for breakfast at the City Bar and Grill.
To the side of us was some luggage as art…
It’s art. Don’t question art 😉
During breakfast one of the Communications Mangers from London City Airport joined my escort and myself where we talked about various subjects, and discussed the second part of the tour – a lot more of the detail of which I’ll reveal…
… In part 2 of the Ramp Walk
Disclosure: London City Airport kindly supplied a hotel room at aLoft ExCeL to me to assist in this visit. Some details and factual information has been provided by London City Airport Corporate Communications Department.
All opinions expressed within this trip are my own, represent my own personal thoughts and my observations during the visit.
You can find out more about London City Airport at http://www.londoncityairport.com/