London City Airport (IATA: LCY, ICAO: EGLC) is an airport in London. It is located on a former Docklands site in the London Borough of Newham, some 6 NM (11 km; 6.9 mi) east of the City of London and a rather smaller distance east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial industry, which is a major user of the airport. The airport was developed by the engineering company Mowlem in 1986–87 and is now owned by a consortium comprising AIG Financial Products Corp. and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
London City Airport has a single 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) long runway, and a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P728) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flight training. Only multi-engine, fixed-wing aircraft with special aircraft and aircrew certification to fly 5.5 degree approaches are allowed to conduct operations at London City Airport.
In 2011, London City Airport served nearly 3 million passengers, a 7.6% increase compared with 2010. It was the fifth busiest airport in terms of passengers and aircraft movements serving the London area after Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton and the 15th busiest in the UK.
The airport has produced a masterplan outlining their vision for growth up to 2030. The plan shows an expansion of the airport to a maximum capacity of 8 million passengers per annum, without the addition of a second runway, or significant expansion of the airport boundaries.
Famous quotes containing the words london, city and/or airport:
“I lately met with an old volume from a London bookshop, containing the Greek Minor Poets, and it was a pleasure to read once more only the words Orpheus, Linus, Musæus,—those faint poetic sounds and echoes of a name, dying away on the ears of us modern men; and those hardly more substantial sounds, Mimnermus, Ibycus, Alcæus, Stesichorus, Menander. They lived not in vain. We can converse with these bodiless fames without reserve or personality.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I’m darned if I understand you city folks. Always rushing, rushing. Always thinking about the future. No wonder you have stomach trouble.”
—James Poe (1921–1980)
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)