Airliner World – April 2018

http://www.airlinerworld.com 97

Malaga and Faro.
Aircraft usually position empty to the
outlying airports on a Friday ready for
a weekend of flying before heading
back to London on Sunday evenings.
The exception to this is the Manchester
operation with the aircraft flying a
service between the two airports on
Thursday and returning on Sunday.
Managing Director Carson said: “The
10-year anniversary is a significant
milestone for us. Initially a business-
based airline, we listened to what our
customers told us and moved into
leisure flying as well, reaching a whole
new market but at the same time
expanding our core business network.”
New destinations introduced from
LCY consist of Prague, Milan/Linate,
Skiathos and Paris/Orly, the latter
after mainline BA stopped flying
there from Heathrow.
During winter 2017/18 spare capacity
has been used to offer flights every
Saturday to Salzburg and Chambéry
from Manchester, continuing through
to March. It has also started a weekly
service to Reykjavík/Keflavík.
CityFlyer has moved further into
the leisure market, operating flights
on behalf of tour operators, predomi-
nantly from Scotland, and passengers
on these flights enjoy the same level of
comfort as they would on a BA service.

The Future
London City is embarking on a major
redevelopment of its facilities in a
bid to increase passenger numbers
from 4.5mppa to 6.5mppa by 2025.
Work includes extending the existing
terminal building, as well as
refurbishing and adding more parking
stands for the next generation of jets to
operate from the airport.

CityFlyer’s five-year plan targets

growth, both at LCY and at the regional

airports. To enable this it acquired

an additional E190 from Azul Linhas

Aéreas Brasileiras in January, with a

second example due from Cobham

Aviation Services Australia in April.

One aircraft is slated for the new

Prague and Orly routes with the other

to increase services to Frankfurt and

Milan/Linate.

Hayhoe told Airliner World BA

CityFlyer would be reviewing its fleet

requirements in the “near future”.

This year the airline plans to serve

63 routes, an increase of nearly 20% on

2017, with approximately 50% of these

from LCY, where it already holds 53% of

the slots and 60% of the total number of

passengers.

Although the carrier is pushing

further into leisure markets around the

country, its fortunes will continue to be

closely linked to those of London City

Airport and with both planning for

future growth it seems clear that BA

CityFlyer, unlike its predecessors, has

bright prospects.

Passenger numbers have

more than quadrupled

to make the airline the

biggest operator in terms

of routes, customers and

aircraft movements from

LCY

BA CityFlyer is actively

recruiting flight deck

crew to enable further

growth. BA CITYFLYER

Embraer 190 G-LCYM

(c/n 19000351) on

short finals for

LCY’s Runway 09.

AVIATION IMAGE NE T WORK/

BRAVONOVEMBER