London City Airport Saturday curfew not eased

LONDON - The UK Government has approved a London City Airport plan to ease its annual passenger cap from 6.5 million to 9.0 million passengers and to fly three extra flights in the first half hour of operations during the week, but rejected the airport's application to extend the Saturday curfew.

London City Airport is cleared to grow from 6.5 million to 9.0 million annual passengers by 2031 while a Saturday cap is continued.

"London City’s proposals to extend its Saturday afternoon operating hours were not accepted," the airport said.

The airport currently closes at 12:30pm on Saturdays. Upon an "extensive consultation process", airport management had requested a new closing time of 6:30pm that would have enabled more choice and flexibility for passengers.

London City’s planning application included no increase in the permitted number of annual flights or infrastructure.

While we welcome the approval to increase our passenger numbers, we are disappointed with the Government’s decision to reject our proposal to fly from 12:30pm to 6:30pm on Saturday afternoons," London City Airport CEO Alison FitzGerald said.