UK city's 'best' airport in major move that could bring budget flights

UK city’s ‘best’ airport in major move that could bring budget flights

Posted by author February 2, 2025 Travel

A popular airport is reportedly looking to make a major change that could pave the way for more budget flights.

London City Airport was named as the best airport in London for 2025 by consumer choice site Which?, and second only to Liverpool John Lennon in the country overall.

But though the travel hub is popular with fliers, it currently only only operates flights with 10 carriers and primarily caters to short-haul and business-focused routes, as per eukvisit.com.

According to The Metro 90 or so planes take off from the the Royal Docks site daily, compared to around 650 from Heathrow, meaning holidaymakers often have to get flights from bigger, more remote airports.

But according to the newspaper, London City has applied to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to make it possible for the A320neo, a model of plane used by low-cost airlines like easyJet, Jet2 and Wizz Air, to take off and land on its runways.

A spokesperson for the airport told The Metro that approval would “open up a range of possible new routes for passengers”.

“The airport sees the possible introduction of the A320neo as key to building its leisure offering,” they continued.

“The aircraft is able to carry over 180 passengers depending on the preferred seat configuration and can travel over 1,000km, which covers large parts of mainland Europe.”

A spokesperson for easyJet told the outlet there are “no plans to fly from London City Airport”, adding: “We remain very focused on the opening of our tenth UK base at London Southend this spring.”

Jet2 said it has plans to fly from London City Airport and is focussing on its existing UK airport bases, and new bases at Bournemouth Airport and London Luton Airport.

A WhizzAir spokesperson said: “While we do not speculate on future growth opportunities we can confirm that Wizz Air is always interested in new routes and markets that can accommodate the airline’s strong growth.

“In general, operating and developing routes and markets is a combination of sustainable demand combined with reasonable local airport costs.

“WIZZ is known for its low fares and any new route, market or airport interested in growing its passenger traffic with Wizz Air should provide an attractive low cost base. When we have any news we will announce these in due course.”

London City Airport chief executive Alison FitzGerald said: “The potential introduction of the A320neo aircraft at London City Airport is incredibly exciting.

“It would broaden the range of leisure destinations for our passengers, enable growth without increasing the number of flight movements, deliver much needed economic growth and accelerate refleeting to cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft.”

It comes around six months after the airport was granted permission by the government to increase its passenger numbers from 6.5 million to 9 million, annually.

However, it was denied the opportunity to extend its operating hours on Saturdays, as it sought to balance expansion with the concerns of residents.