London City Airport passes 1 million passengers for 1st time since COVID
On Thursday, London City Airport (LCY) announced that it had surpassed the one million passenger mark for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The milestone was reached after figures saw a significant jump throughout the month of May.
Over the past month, the airport saw 290,000 passengers walk through its gates (65% of 2019 numbers for the same period), up from 256,000 in April.
There were also very few cancellations throughout May, with airlines operating 98% of their scheduled flights.
Furthermore, LCY had the best on-time performance of any London airport.
The trajectory is indeed looking very promising. Figures for total passenger volumes for 2022 are already 29% up on 2021’s end of year total, and London City Airport expects to close this year having served close to three million people.
In particular, leisure demand has come back very strongly. The airport’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Sinclair, commented on the numbers saying, “We are not only pleased to see the continued strength of the recovery in passenger volumes, but also by the way in which our operation has performed over this period.”
“Despite a big increase in flights and passengers along with our airline partners, we have continued to deliver our market leading passenger proposition of speed, convenience and on time performance – something which I know has been really welcomed by our customers.”
Speed and convenience is indeed something passengers at several European airports have not been able to take for granted over the course of the past month.
The smaller size of an operation such as LCY compared to its larger neighbors outside of London may have an operational upperhand as it meets the rebound in traffic.
So where are all these people going? Ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend that just passed, Amsterdam remained the most popular route, served by both British Airways and KLM Cityhopper.
Other leisure routes such as Florence, Ibiza, Nice and Malaga also saw an uptick in passengers. Meanwhile, over the Jubilee weekend itself, there was a spike of inbound bookings from Edinburgh, Luxembourg, Zurich, as well as from Amsterdam.
Over the course of June, there will be nine new destinations added to the services taking off from LCY.
These include a brand-new route to Thessaloniki in northern Greece and the return of direct services to Barcelona and Guernsey.
Mahon, Santorini, Split, Quimper and Skiathos will also be on offer from mid-month, as will Jersey.
“With flights to 36 domestic and European destinations, we are fully resourced and focused on ensuring we deliver the best experience for all our passengers over what promises to be a really special summer period,” Mr Sinclair added.
