London City operating hours change?

Iv’e never heard of an Airport closing fo 24 hours before

From Embraer.com:

ERJ 135 CERTIFIED TO OPERATE AT LONDON CITY

Embraer announced today that its ERJ 135 aircraft was granted steep approach certification issued by both Brazilian and European regulatory authorities, respectively CTA (Centro Técnico Aeroespacial) and JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities).
With such certification, the ERJ 135 becomes the first Embraer jet authorized to operate at London City (LCY) airport, located in downtown London, England. London City is a favorite airport for business passengers, as it is located very close to the city’s financial center.

“The possibility of operating into London City adds an important competitive edge to the ERJ 135 in the European market,” said Frederico Fleury Curado, Embraer’s Executive Vice-President, Civil Aircraft. “Now Embraer jets become an option for European airlines that currently fly turboprops in and out of London City”.

Instrument landing approach procedure is deemed as steep when the glide slope is greater than or equals 4.5 degrees in relation to horizon. While the standard instrument landing glide slope angle is 3.0 degrees, at LCY the glide angle is as great as 5.5 degrees. Normally the steep approach instrument landing procedure is used over great urban centers such as London to reduce noise, or in areas surrounded by mountains such as Lugano, Switzerland.

The ERJ 135 test campaign to obtain steep approach certification started in April 2003, and included development and certification flights in which CTA and JAA representatives took part, at São José dos Campos (Brazil), Blyte (USA) and Conventry (England). The campaign was completed after confirmation flights were made at London City airport during the month of September.

————————————————————————————

Embraer are also now trying to get the 170 certified to operate into LCY. Here the press release from Embraer.com:

EMBRAER 170 On Track for Certification

The EMBRAER 170 certification campaign continues at full steam, following the company’s definition of November 2003 as the certification date for the model.

The EMBRAER 170 is designed to operate from airports such as LCY, and is scheduled to start the steep approach certification campaign right after completing basic certification in November. The first customer that opted for this capability is SWISS, which is scheduled to take delivery of its first aircraft in August, 2004.

So far the EMB170-195 program has 244 firm orders.

Thanks for that Dan. I wasn’t aware that the airport was open on Saturday mornings.

These are the following operational hours of London City Airport.

Monday – Friday = 06:30 – 22:00
Saturday = 06:30 – 12:30
Sunday = 12:30 – 22:00

So there you have it – LCY is only closed for 24 hours between Saturday 12:30 – Sunday 12:30. So that CityJet flight will operate. I myself have also flown with Aer Lingus on a flight to Dublin on a Saturday morning a few years ago.

The number of movements are limited to 73,000 Air Transport Movements (ATMS) per calender year.
LCY must also only be used by aircraft producing up to a maximum of 94.5 PNdB, which represents the upper noise limit for aircraft using the airport.

Hope this answers all questions
Regards
dan777

Yeah I saw that on the LCY site today! Good news indeed, it should see some new routes that require less capacity being launched from the airport hopefully.

Sorry to change the topic slightly. The ERJ-135 has now been certified to operate into LCY. 🙂

I never knew LCY didn’t open every day of the week. I guess I take it for granted that larger airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick open all day, every day.