96 AIRLINER WORLD APRIL 2018
Growth
Having celebrated its tenth birthday
in 2017 – the same year LCY marked its
30th anniversary – BA CityFlyer
continues to grow. It now employs
more than 500 people, split between
London City, Didsbury and its small
crew base at Edinburgh. Included in
that figure are 215 pilots (104 captains
and 111 first officers), 15% of whom are
female (including eight captains). The
carrier is actively recruiting additional
flight crew to facilitate further growth.
Passenger numbers have more than
quadrupled to make the airline the
biggest operator in terms of routes,
customers and aircraft movements
from LCY, and last summer its network
spanned 54 destinations.
To enable this expansion the fleet has
increased to 14 E190s and six E170s. In
addition, it has wet-leased an Eastern
Airways Saab 2000 to predominantly
fly the Isle of Man connection, and
took on an E170 from the Humberside-
based airline last summer to add
frequency on existing services.
Declan Collier, former CEO of London
City Airport, said: “Over the last decade,
BA CityFlyer has grown its fleet
considerably and become our largest
airline customer, offering great serviceand a growing route network that
continues to be widely praised by
our passengers.”
BA CityFlyer has used the weekly
closure at LCY, between midday on
Saturday and midday on Sunday, to
expand its leisure offering from
airports around the UK. At Manchester,
for instance, it offers seasonal services
to Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma,
Mykonos and Nice, while Birmingham
and Bristol have connections to
Malaga, Ibiza, Palma and Florence.
Last summer Stansted welcomed three
new destinations (Florence, Geneva
and Nice) and increased frequencies toAll of BA CityFlyer’s
operations are marketed
as British Airways
services, with the fleet
all wearing the full
BA livery.
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/
MATTHIEU DOUHAIRE
BOTTOM RIGHT • The
E-Jet fleet features a
two-class cabin,
configured in a 2+2
layout. BA CITYFLYER
Food and drink is
complimentary in the
Club Europe cabin while
‘buy on board’ operates
in the Euro Traveller
cabin. BA CITYFLYER