Central London airport expects meaningful growth in 2022 as British Airways announces significant summer schedule
More than three-quarters of 2019 routes to be on the London City departure board in 2022
New routes include Thessaloniki, Barcelona and the return of 2019 top performer Milan
714,000 passengers used London City in 2021, down 21% on 2020
The prediction follows the announcement of a busy summer schedule for British Airways, the airport’s biggest customer, and the easing of COVID restrictions, which are helping to fuel a return to business and leisure travel.
Flights to Milan, one of the airport’s top performing routes, and which alone carried 275,000 passengers from the centre of London to the centre of Milan in 2019, will be reinstated this year.
Barcelona will return to the London City network for the first time in almost a decade, while new routes such as Thessaloniki join established summer favourites like Split, Mykonos and Faro.
The upturn in confidence at the airport reflects the easing of travel restrictions and the proactive role LCY has played to work with and support its airline partners as the industry looks to bounce back from the worst of the pandemic.
The impact of COVID-19 can be seen in the airport’s 2021 results. 714,000 passengers used London City, down 21% on 2020 and 86% on 2019. However, in the first six months of the year, when extensive global travel restrictions were in place, the airport handled only 75,184 passengers. In the last six months, as restrictions were eased, 638,785 passengers used the airport and very strong month on month growth was achieved.
There were other positive trends for the airport in 2021, with business travel back strongly on all domestic routes, with Edinburgh the best performer. Internationally, Amsterdam was the airport’s strongest route, with KLM growing to four rotations per day in the autumn, with high passenger load factors. Other key business routes have included Zurich and Geneva, operated by SWISS and Frankfurt, operated by Lufthansa.
