London City Airport has lost the OLT service to Bremen but has more than made up for it with the already announced Lufthansa services, British Airways to Madrid and the expected arrival from November 20 2006 of Italy”s Air One with a twice daily Milan Linate operation.
London City Airport has also raised its car park charges to ”6 for the first hour in the short term car park (”3 in the not much further normal area, but you will probably not find room closer in) making it one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive airport car parks in the country (Heathrow T1 = ”3.90). However users do get the benefit of a valet parking service.
Air One, which claims to be Italy”s largest privately owned airline, will offer a Monday ” Friday twice daily service and single flights on Saturday and Sunday. Rome Fiumicino flights will be introduced with the same schedule from January 8 2007, and from January 29 operations to Genoa and Turin. Two-class Avro RJ70s will be used for all services.
British Airways already flies to Milan Malpensa on a daily basis but there are currently no operations to Genoa, Rome or Turin.
London City Airport chief executive Richard Gooding is confident that the business communities, both in London and Milan, will support the service. ”Route development at London City Airport is driven purely by customer demand. We have very close links with the business community and work with them to provide the direct air transport services they need.
”Milan is a very popular destination. Providing a direct service between London”s city centre airport and Milan”s city centre airport certainly meets their demands and expectations. Air One is very keen to develop services to Italy and we wish them every success.”