London City Airport (LCY) says that it will install 12 new SITA AirportConnect CUSS (Common User Self Service) kiosks by early May for use on airlines such as VLM, KLM and Swiss.
The new kiosks are part of major upgrading work at the Docklands airport that saw a record 2.9m passengers pass through its terminal in 2007, while four new aircraft parking stands are also slated for completion next month at a cost of ”30m ($60m).
Since its beginning in 1987, London City has seen consistent growth and the new stands ” built over the King George V dock to the east of the terminal - will bring to 18 the number of aircraft parking slots available.
Some 250 extra seats will be provided in the departure lounge, while WH Smith and Nuance will also be new airside additions, as is what the airport refers to as a ”concept bar.”
The improvements ” particularly the extra stands and seating - is crucial to London City”s further success. Existing capacity is sometimes strained at peak times that co-incide with waves of flights designed to fit around business schedules.
New security lanes introduced last year mean that waiting times are shorter than any other commercial UK airport, according to LCY, while access from aircraft steps to public transport is estimated to be an average of five minutes.
A raft of new services has been launched from London City recently, with British Airways (BA) in particular upping its activity at the airport with flights to Nice, Barcelona, Warsaw and Amsterdam. Lufthansa started Berlin rotations in January, while SAS and Austrian Airlines launched services to Oslo and Vienna last year.
BA will also start transatlantic business class only flights from LCY next year using Airbus A318s, although the aircraft will probably have to make a stop in western Ireland, due to the short London runway (1,199M/3,934ft).
”London City Airport has grown in leaps and bounds since its opening in 1987,” said chief executive Richard Gooding, ”and the future is even more encouraging as more and more passengers travel from our east London hub.”