London City has submitted £200 million expansion plans to allow the airport to double annual passenger numbers from the current three milion to six million by 2023.
The east London airport has applied for planning permission to extend its infrastructure to allow flight movements to increase from the current 70,000 to 120,000 per year. The airport secured permission to operate this higher number of flights in 2009.
The application includes extending the terminal building and creating bigger parking stands for the larger aircraft which are expected to start using the airport from 2016. A new taxi lane will also be added to allow more flights during peak periods but there is no proposal to extend a runway.
Declan Collier, the airport’s CEO, said the expansion was necessary to meet the “growing demand for business travel”.
“Increasingly, this area (the Royal Docks) is a focus for foreign investment – the recent announcement by ABP of its intention to build a multi-billion pound business park on Royal Albert Dock is one such example – and the connectivity to business centres across Europe, eastern Europe and the Middle East that the airport provides, or will provide in the future, is central to this continuing,” said Collier.
The airport’s expansion plan has been submitted to the London Borough of Newham which will make a decision on the application.
londoncityairport.com