HILL
Richard

Connections from London City to the capital of the Czech Republic are set to resume on Sunday with BA CityFlyer. The return of Prague means that 13 of the 15 routes that BA CityFlyer operated in 2019 have now returned to the schedule – with hope that Milan Linate and Munich will again feature on the airport’s departure board in the months ahead. After a shortened ski season in 2020, London City will add Salzburg and Chambéry to its schedule in the winter, complimenting existing services to Zurich and Geneva. The new route announcements come as the airport is reporting strong growth, particularly in business traffic since the easing of restrictions for passengers arriving into the UK. The latest figures indicate that the airport is on-track to welcome 145,000 passengers in October, which is up 21% on September and featured a number of ‘busiest days’ since the pandemic, including 7,300 passengers on the 22nd of October. This is despite many of its summer leisure destinations being replaced by additional rotations on core business routes like Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin. London City Airport’s Chief Commercial Officer, Richard Hill said: “We are delighted with the strong performance through October. We’ve long maintained that business traffic would return and the demand from customers during October has given us real confidence heading into 2022. It’s also testament to the agility of our airlines in providing convenient flight times and competitive pricing that benefit our customers. [cite=104]The growing confidence in the market has led to British Airways announcing three new, exciting connections between London City, Prague, Salzburg and Chambéry. Passengers itching to get to the Christmas markets, or Alps for a much-deserved break – or flexible working destination – this winter, will be pleased to know they can now travel from the centre of London to these destinations in a few hours.[/cite]” Commenting on the APD reduction announced by the Chancellor, Hill added: “The industry has long called for a reduction in a tax that was amongst the highest in Europe and inflated the cost, particularly for domestic flights. From our perspective, I would expect it to encourage more people to travel between London and the regions for both business or to enjoy many of the world-class tourist destinations across the UK. We’ll continue to work with our airlines to develop a comprehensive and convenient domestic schedule into London City.” The schedule for November also includes SWISS adding five-weekly rotations on Zurich, Luxair adding three on Luxembourg, KLM an additional rotation on Amsterdam and Lufthansa adding 11 on Frankfurt. BA CityFlyer is growing Glasgow by 10 weekly rotations, Edinburgh by seven, Berlin by six, Amsterdam and Florence by two. Passengers arriving into London City from overseas will be able to book and take a lateral flow test at the airport’s on-site testing centre, operated by Collinson’s.