London’s best airport is set to get bigger, quieter planes

There’s nothing quite like strolling into London City Airport (LCY) an hour before your flight, breezing through security and hopping on your plane without any delays. This seamless flying experience is why LCY has been named the best airport in the capital, and the UK, multiple times. Now, City is about to get even better, because it could be introducing larger, quieter planes. 

LCY has launched a public consultation into the introduction of a new landing approach for quieter, more efficient aircraft. The airport wants to establish a slightly shallower landing approach for certain new‑generation planes. 

What does this mean exactly? Currently, all aircraft landing at the hub must use a steep 5.5-degree approach (that’s the angle of landing) due to the airport’s location in a built-up area of London. LCY wants to implement a new 4.49‑degree approach, made possible by high precision satellite‑based navigation. This new procedure would be available only to specifically authorised new‑gen aircraft like the Airbus A320neo, while most planes would continue to use the existing 5.5‑degree landing.

The proposal does not involve any changes to existing flight paths. Planes would continue to fly over the same areas they do today (London City has one of the world’s most beautiful landings, flying over the Thames), with the changes only affecting the final few kilometres before landing. Flight routes to and from the airport would also stay the same. 

LCY is proposing this change as it hope to transport nine million passengers per year through its gates by allowing larger-capacity planes to fly from the airport. By reducing the overall number of flights with bigger aircraft, LCY would decrease noise and carbon dioxide emissions. It’s estimated that 18,380 tonnes of CO2 and 5,780 tonnes of fuel would be saved, while noise exposure could be reduced for 110,000 people.

The consultation is open from now until Sunday May 17. Anyone can contribute, and you can have your say online here. 

More travel: Inside the radical plan to power London’s tube network with solar energy. 

And did you see that TfL has revealed when you’ll be able to ride new DLR trains in London?