London City airport plans to expand

LONDON CITY AIRPORT has launched a public consultation on its new Master Plan – including whether it should be allowed to increase the number of flights to and from the small airport on the western edge of Newham.

The Airport is currently limited to 110,000 flights a day, but it wants the cap raised to 151,000 a year – an increase of over a third – to meet increasing passenger demand. Such an increase would let the airport introduce just over 100 more flights a day.

The Airport has tried to sweeten the pill by promising that expansion would bring the area “up to” 2,500 extra jobs and that the extra flights could be accommodated in the current 16 hour flight window, without breaching the eight hour overnight closure period.

Its Chief Executive, Robert Sinclair, said that extra capacity would allow the airport to take more leisure passengers, in addition to the business travellers currently being transported. He claimed that the extra flights would be environmentally sustainable.

Local campaigners are appalled by the proposals. John Stewart, Chair of Hacan East, which has long campaigned against the harmful effects of the airport and its series of expansion applications in recent years, claimed that raising flight numbers would be a disaster for residents.

One Tower Hamlets resident also expressed concerns. He admitted that the eight hour night time ban on flights was welcome, but said that the noise over Poplar in the early morning was just too much already.

Newham Council, which will determine the expansion application, promised to scrutinise the application to ensure it was compatible with the Council’s commitment to improve air quality and to make the borough carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050.

•For more information about the City Airport’s public consultation on its new Master Plan, including documents, how to respond and details of public consultation meetings, go to:
https://www.londoncityairport.com/corporate/consultation

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