Taking off: London City airport’s £16m lounge revamp
London City airport, a favourite with travellers who abhor long check-in queues, snaking lines for security checks and yearn for a respite from traditional public lounges, is giving a £16m revamp to its western pier which houses 70 per cent of the departure gates.
New shops, restaurants and watering holes, quiet areas with mobile-device charging points, electronic boarding gates, workspaces, and 600 additional seats are planned for the 1,760 square metres of extra space. It will bring the size of the pier to 3,910 square metres, or about two-thirds the size of a football pitch.
Declan Collier, London City Airport chief executive, said: “We are creating more space, more seating, and more comfort…people choose London City for its unrivalled location so close to central London, the speed of check-in and arrivals, and for the quality of the experience.
“This expansion will make the new Western Pier a cutting-edge extension of the departure lounge, with a business-class feel throughout,” he said.
A record 3.65m people used the airport last year – up eight per cent on 2013 – to travel with the ten airlines serving 45 destinations – all European apart from New York which is a business-class only service with British Airways. Busiest routes include Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich and Dublin. Four million are expected this year, attracted by the door to lounge speed of around 20 minutes and tarmac to train of around 15. City is on course to attract 6m passengers by 2023.