Why’s that – it’d be a waste of money getting it certified, money could be spent elsewhere, i.e. on the DLR – just built and the branch line is already closed last weekend for maintenance.
Who would operate the A318 into city? Who, noone thats who – so why bother – anyway i’d rather the EMB170 certification got accelerated than yet another jet, which would cause complaint with neighbours (would be much louder than any existing jet) and then we’ll have some big massive protests agains jets – these Bexley folk like complainin!
But with the A318 at LCY they will be able to fly to longer destnations.I think the A318 should be the only big jet into LCY.
besides who would operate it,
wozza
Like LBAspotter siad AF and future A318 buyers
[QUOTE=wozza]I agree, but whose gonna pay for the taxiway’s and apron to be brought up to an A318 handling capacity – London City itself would have to, not Airbus/
QUOTE]
LCY said this sometime back (If you want to reach cities like Antwerp, Dundee, Liverpool, Bremen, Berne and Lugano, then London City is the only jumping off point from London. Flights are operated mainly by four-engined BAe 146 jets or
twin-engined F50 turbo-props.
London City is different from the capital’s other airports. For a start it’s owned by an entrepreneur (Ireland’s Dermot Desmond) rather than a large corporation and, secondly, its route development is driven by demand. “Customer pressure makes a new route possible,” says Richard Gooding. The furthest destination currently served is Lugano in
Swiss Ticino. “Routes planned between now and the end of next year include Copenhagen, Glasgow, Madrid, Milan, Newcastle, Stockholm and Vienna,” he adds.
Some of these routes are outside the range of the existing planes so the airport is looking to new models. The 100-seater Airbus A318/319 series is one plane the airport could consider. It would enable an operator to fly non-stop on longer stages like Madrid (currently the most requested route and one outside the range of existing planes).
“There’s a 50/50 chance this plane will come here. Flying the Airbus into London City isn’t a problem,” says Gooding. “The problem is what you do with the plane on the ground. [Although the Airbus would hold roughly the same as the Bae 146] it is bigger but taller than the existing planes and our taxi-ways and parking spaces were originally laid out for more compact models.”
Corporate planes face no such problems. Says Gooding:“60 percent of all corporate planes can land here, with Netjets being one of our best customers. Corporate traffic now comprises 10 percent of our total traffic.” The Jet Centre is at the London end of the airport and can be reached swiftly and discreetly.
Unlike at Heathrow, executive planes are welcome. “We operate nine-seater Citation Excel jets from here on sectors up to 4.5 hours,” says George Galanopolous, managing director of London Executive Aviation, a major user of the Jet Centre with 50 arrivals and departures a day. “We tend to fly to destinations not covered by the normal flights from there. So that means Athens, Moscow, Algiers and Tripoli. The most popular destinations are Nice and Marbella. Main customers are banks and financial institutions in the City and Canary Wharf. Leisure customers are becoming increasingly common and now represent about 30 percent of the total.)
I also here the Fokker 70 is certified at LCY
James
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