London City Airport has submitted a planning application as it bids to increase its annual passenger cap by 2.5million and allow planes to fly to and from it for longer on Saturdays.
The airport, based in the Royal Docks in Newham, said its proposals would create almost 2,200 new jobs by 2031 and generate an extra £700million to the capital’s economy.
It has sent the application to Newham Council who will decide whether or not to approve it.
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The submission follows a ten-week public consultation on the proposals.
They include raising the airport’s annual passenger cap from 6.5 million to 9 million by 2031.
London City’s chief executive Robert Sinclair said it has listened to concerns raised in the consultation and amended its plans.
This has included reducing its proposed flying hours on Saturdays from ending at 10pm to 6.30pm and reducing a planned increase in the number of flights allowed in the first half-an-hour of operating on Mondays to Saturdays.
Mr Sinclair said: “As we bounce back from the pandemic and demand increases, we need to ensure London City can accommodate the increase in business and leisure passengers forecast over the next decade or so, particularly as east London grows.
“Our proposals will create more jobs, invest more money into the local community, fund better transport connections and improve sound insulation for local residents.”
The airport has also included a requirement that all aircraft operating in the extended hours on Saturday or additional flights in the first 30 minutes “must be cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft, operating to the highest noise and emissions standards”, a spokesperson explained.
The airport said it is not seeking any increase to the annual number of permitted flights, which will remain at 111,000, and is not planning to change the existing eight-hour nightly curfew.
No extra infrastructure is proposed and its Sunday operations will be unchanged, London City’s spokesperson said.
Campaign group Hacan East, which is against the expansion of the airport, said it welcomed the “scaling back” of the plans.
But its chair John Stewart added: “Our members are concerned that the new planes will only be noticeably quieter on departure and only for communities within a few miles of the airport.”
London City is also planning a £3.8m community fund, enhancements to its sound insulation and creating a transport fund which it says could improve connections between the airport and nearby train lines.
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