British Airways subsidiary BA CityFlyer has announced it
will resume three European routes from London City airport starting this
weekend, meaning 13 of the 15 routes the airline operated in 2019 have
returned.
From 31 October, the carrier will re-launch services to
Prague with three return flights per week. Then, from 12 December, flights to
Salzburg will resume on a three-weekly basis, followed by twice-daily flights
to Chambrey from 19 December.
In addition to BA CityFlyer¡¯s new routes, the November schedule
for London City airport includes an extra five weekly Swiss flights to Zurich,
three additional Luxair services to Luxembourg, another KLM rotation to
Amsterdam and 11 extra flights to Frankfurt with Lufthansa.
BA CityFlyer is also increasing frequencies on several
routes, including 10 extra weekly flights to Glasgow, seven to Edinburgh, six
to Berlin and two to each Amsterdam and Florence.
London City airport has reported strong growth in passenger
numbers, particularly from business travel, since the UK government began
lifting restrictions for incoming travellers. According to the airport, the
latest figures show it is on track to see 145,000 passengers in October, up 21
per cent on September.
The numbers come after many of the airport¡¯s popular summer
destinations were replaced by additional flights on core business routes such
as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin.
Richard Hill, the London City airport¡¯s CCO, said: ¡°We are
delighted with the strong performance through October. We¡¯ve long maintained
that business traffic would return and the demand from customers during October
has given us real confidence heading into 2022.¡±
Commenting on the recent news that domestic Air Passenger
Duty will be reduced in 2023, Hill added: ¡°The industry has long called for a
reduction in a tax that was amongst the highest in Europe and inflated the
cost, particularly for domestic flights. From our perspective, I would expect it
to encourage more people to travel between London and the regions for both
business or to enjoy many of the world-class tourist destinations across the
UK. We¡¯ll continue to work with our airlines to develop a comprehensive and
convenient domestic schedule into London City.¡±