Early during the pandemic, London City Airport closed its doors to the public. It seems the time has come for those doors to be reopened, with the airport reopening to commercial traffic from 21st June.
London City Airport – ready to welcome back passengers – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The airport recently polled some of its users, with some interesting numbers about their intent to travel:
- 79% were either very likely or quite likely to travel when they are told it is safe to do so by the Government and airports or airlines – almost half of its customers (48%) were very likely to do so
- 42% of the airport’s customers plan to travel for leisure within the next three months
- 41% of City’s flyers anticipate they will take a flight for business within the next three months
Returning to the air
London City Airport will initially serve domestic routes, providing connections around the United Kingdom.
The first flight will be one Sunday, 21st of June with flight BA3287 between the Isle of Man and London City.
The airport will also be hosting new routes to Teeside Airport in County Durham, and Dundee in Scotland.
The airport expects its main traffic that will rebuild will be between it and Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin – with those routes returning in July. They also expect summer sun routes to Ibiza, Florence, Málaga and Palma to return over the coming weeks.
Using the airport
London City Airport continues to boast about its speed – that allows passengers to go from the entrance to the gate in 20 minutes or less.
As such, the airport will limit access to passengers who have a valid ticket on the day of travel.
Like all public transportation in the UK, passengers will need to wear a face-covering while at the airport (and according to the airport’s research -something which should not prove controversial, with three-quarters of customers (76%) indicating that they would choose to wear a face mask anyway).
Social distancing will be in effect, with hand sanitizers in place, along with surfaces treated with a long-life anti-microbial surface treatment which will be used throughout the airport.
Rebooting the network
London City Airport’s network has always been “origin and destination” traffic – with minimal (if any) connecting traffic), thus the airport will want to regain its both domestic and European flying programmes.
Whilst the European flying programme is still up in the air thanks to the UK Government Quarantine on arrival, the initial focus will be to rebuild the Domestic and Irish Networks.
And ensure that the airport is ready to receive passengers once we are cleared to fly again to serve Docklands, The City of London and beyond.
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