Philippe Merlo, Director ATM, EUROCONTROL, presented the ACI EUROPE Best Airport Award in the ‘Under 5 million passengers’ category to Matthew Hall, Chief Commercial Officer, London City Airport.
London City Airport is a multiple recipient of the ACI EUROPE Best Airport Award in the ‘Under 5 million passengers’ category, winning for the fourth time at this year’s ceremony. Matthew Hall, Chief Commercial Officer, London City Airport, explained its recipe for success to Ross Falconer.
The London City business model is firmly centred on efficiency and an exemplary passenger experience. Indeed, it won praise from this year’s ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards judges for “key investments to reduce passengers’ time in the airport”, “long-term strategic relationships with the airlines”, and “sustained environmental awareness and quality improvements”.
Of course, it was announced in August that London City is up for sale. It is currently 75% owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and 25% by Highstar Capital. It is very much business as usual. “We feel very strongly that it’s important to continually invest and improve the airport,” Matthew Hall, Chief Commercial Officer, London City Airport, commented. “We’re focused on delivering the best possible passenger journey. The ACI EUROPE Best Airport Award is very important to us – it is the result of the work of the entire LCY team, we all share in that.”
London City Airport achieved record passenger numbers of 3.65 million in 2014 (+8%), and expects to handle 4.1 million this year. This can be partly attributed to London moving east – in terms of businesses relocating to the east of London, particularly in the tech sectors, and their employees settling in the east of London.
Strategic relations with the airlines is an area in which London City aims to be pioneering. Indeed, Hall has sat on both sides of the fence, having previously spent 14 years in the airline sector with United Airlines and then American Airlines. “The key is longer-term deals, so there is greater certainty for both the airport and the airlines. It allows us to work with the airlines on their operational needs and to think longer-term about how we can work together,” Hall stated. “We also share data with our airline customers to enable good decisions on new routes, as well as increased frequencies on existing routes.”
The collaborative approach has certainly been successful – year-to-date passenger volumes are up 20%, and Flybe arriving in October 2014 was the single biggest airline launch in London City’s 28-year history.
The £16 million (€22m) Western Pier development will be complete in Q3 2016, maintaining London City’s central propositions of speed and customer experience excellence, while creating a bright, open plan space that includes modern seating, electronic boarding gates, new retail and food & beverage outlets, and 600 additional seats.
€22m Western Pier development
While planning permission has not been granted for the wider City Airport Development Programme (the airport has mounted an appeal and a public inquiry will start in March 2016), a separate £16 million (€22m) redevelopment of the Western Pier is underway.
“We believe the Mayor of London’s decision to issue a refusal direction to the London Borough of Newham was the wrong one, ignoring the significant social and economic benefits that the airport’s development will bring, as well as the comprehensive package of measures that the airport has proposed to mitigate and control noise,” Hall explained. “In addition, it sends the wrong message about investment in the east of London and London generally, and seemingly disregards the 2,000 employment opportunities that the CADP will create, as well as the £1.5 billion (€2bn) of annual economic impact that an expanded airport will deliver.”
The Western Pier development will be complete in Q3 2016, maintaining London City’s central propositions of speed and customer experience excellence, while creating a bright, open plan space that includes modern seating, electronic boarding gates, new retail and food & beverage outlets, and 600 additional seats.
Further enhancements to the passenger experience include new check-in and bag drop kiosks, provided by Phase 5 Technology, which have reduced check-in times to as little as 55 seconds. London City has also implemented the CrowdVision passenger analytics software, which detects and analyses real-time passenger movement, generating actionable metrics such as queue lengths and journey times.
Of course, the airport is striving to maintain its success and to retain the ACI EUROPE Best Airport Award in 2016. Over the next 12 months it will complete the Western Pier development, focus on the appeal process for the City Airport Development Programme, explore new opportunities with its airline partners, and, above all, maintain its core propositions of speed and a premier customer experience.
