Business travel is flying high once again, according to the latest figures from London City Airport (LCY).
The airport, which has the highest proportion of business travellers of any airport in the UK, recorded its busiest ever week last week. A total of 84,758 passengers travelled through LCY during week commencing 9 November – a 27% increase on the same period last year and a 5.5% increase on the previous record, set in July 2013.
Thursday 13 November was the busiest day ever at LCY, with 15,899 passengers flying through – 1.3% higher than the previous record set on Friday 23 May 2013.
With more than 60% of passengers using LCY travelling on business, the numbers indicate the return to strength of the business travel market, with workers from Canary Wharf and the City taking to the skies to do deals face to face across Europe.
Declan Collier, CEO at London City Airport said: “The signs are very encouraging. Employers are growing in confidence, releasing travel budgets, and airlines are growing in confidence, adding new routes and increasing frequencies to offer customers more choice. Just last month, Flybe launched services out of London City, boosting connectivity to the UK regions in a move that was welcomed by the Government and illustrating the increasing appetite for airlines to pursue business travellers. Meanwhile, our largest airline partner British Airways is continuing to fill its planes with more and more passengers and expanding its offering to meet demand.
“It is now more important than ever that we are allowed to grow. Our current infrastructure is constrained and with demand continuing to increase, we must develop that infrastructure to continue to offer the convenience, speed and customer experience that we pride ourselves on and for which people choose to travel from LCY, in turn supporting more than 2,000 jobs on campus and driving investment in the Royal Docks and wider East London area.”
London City Airport serves more than 45 routes across Europe and New York. New routes launched this year include Hamburg, Guernsey, Belfast, Inverness and Exeter. LCY is the UK’s most punctual airport, with the most flights on time and the shortest average delay, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
