City Jet,

Well with WW saying that the LCY ops are a strategic part of the BA group I'd expect them to be around until at least 2008 when the RJ leases start expiring. Then who knows...........ERJ or A3.. He has so far ruled out the A318.

Moku
Why do BA need to replace the RJ100s? Why not just extend the leases?

In this month's Airliner World there is an intereting portrait of VLM Airlines. A few quotes:

- further expansion will concentrate on non-LCY routes as the airport has reached saturation. Routes under evaluation from ANR, RTM, BRU and LUX.

- over the next 12 month, VLM will trial a new, larger aircraft under wet-lease contract on a single route. Possible aircraft mentioned are a E170, a Q400 or an Avro RJ.

- Fokker 50s to stay for at least five years. Fleet renewal either by keeping the Fokker 50s over 2010 and adding a larger aircraft type or by introducing a single family concept in the 50-80 seat range.

- CEO quoted praising the Q400 and the ATR42/72, while lamenting that the ATR72 is not yet certified for LCY. Airbus A318 already ruled out. Concerns about second hand Avro RJs because of reliability issues.

Milan
 

I hear on the grapevine that after some uncertainty regarding slots at Linate, the AirOne Milan service is due to start on Monday. Certainly good for me and I will be a user and I would have thought good for alot in teh city and canary wharf.

Airport Sale
 

I see that EU approval has been given for the AIG buy out of LCY. I assume this means the new owners will get the keys now and the airport can start developing?

Just a simple question, but whatever business is it of the EU who the owner of any airport is ? There were no monopoly ownership issues.

Doubt it. ScotAirways never made money and then BA tried and made even less. That's why they shifted the operation to Edinburgh.

Rumour has it, over 350 movements in one day last week!

OTOH, British Airways needs to find some work for their 10 RJ100s inherited from BACON and some domestic runs seem to be a sensible approach. With BA's growing presence at LCY and the increasing number of domestic destinations from the airport, it might be worth another try. After all, what other destinations are there that could keep the RJ100s busy ? Maybe VIE or something like HEL, WAW or PRG, but the rest is already well covered by the competition.

Now don't quote me on this but I believe it's due to GE's interest in Aircraft leasing and engine making? Aviation in the broard sense and therefore automatically triggered a referral.

353 on Thursday 23rd November. Which for an airport only open 14hrs or so per day is pretty good (and averages out at 25 or so per hour) This was an increase of 16 on the previous record.

I now also understand that VLM have now topped 50 flights per day in/out of LCY (so 100 movements for 1 airline!)

london city movements
 

AlanM

Not bad indeed....believe the weekly movement total for London City was more than that for Luton...might need to park a few in the docks shortly!

Don't forget that the best part of those GBP 750M is debt. The new owners are likely to require LCY to make substantial cash pronto. I'd be surprised if revenue-enhancing and cost-cutting measures were not to be introduced in a very near future. And I'm afraid LCY will go down the BAA route, changing its focus from "customers first (and we wouldn't mind making some profit, mind you)" to "profits first so we can service our debt (there are no other airports nearby, so why bother with customers)".
:(

LCY has been in BAA mode for a while. The car park charges seem to have gone up at 25% per annum cumulative for the last several years.

I have always thought of them as offering a good customer focused service which you didnt mind paying for. That ahs always been their approach - offer good service and I for one don't mind paying.

By the way, the new AirOne services will be operated by Transwede with three ex airBaltic RJ70s.

That's what I was trying to say. The BAA approach is "offer :mad: service, make customers pay an arm and a leg anyway".
Well OK, I agree that GBP 6 as a minimum charge for parking at LCY is a bit rich. But, on the ops sid, at LCY I've never heard "there's no bus available", "you can't use that stand because we're short of staff", "we can't open all security lines", "sorry you're early, the baggage handlers will begin their shift shortly, and then we just might start unloading your luggage compartment" (LG 4401 is one of the first flights into LHR T2).

[QUOTE=tom de luxe;2995902]That's what I was trying to say. The BAA approach is "offer :mad: service, make customers pay an arm and a leg anyway".
Well OK, I agree that GBP 6 as a minimum charge for parking at LCY is a bit rich.

£6 for parking next to the terminal? costs me 6 times that at canary wharf and 10 times that at LHR and in both cases i have to walk further that i would at LCY. ANyway, since the DLR, I tend to leave the car at home and use that with my Oyster card. About £1.20!! Now that's value.

The minimum charge for parking (a car, not a plane that is) at LHR ist not GBP 60 (err... checking... no, it really isn't (yet). Phew, you never know with NCP these day). And yes, I agree that the DLR is better value and less stressful.
And did I mention I love LCY? :O

I usually find that chatting to pax alongside me and finding where they are travelling to/from, the DLR is quite irrelevant for them.

A few recent ones :

Enfield
Maidstone
Heathrow
Rural Cambridgeshire

Apart from the poor American routing Antwerp-LCY-LHR-Los Angeles none of these are practical using the DLR at all.

And we live over in Beckton, just far enough away from a DLR station for luggage to be pretty impractical. By the way, have you ever tried asking a black cab to take you from LCY over to Beckton :ooh: :uhoh: