After growing pains, the Docklands Airport has matured into a fully fledged gateway, with an expanding network of destinations and airline operators. Colin Ellson reports Richard Gooding, CEO of London City, borrows in part from Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man in summing up the history of the Docklands airport as it celebrates its 20th year of operation. “We have grown from a screaming infant, terrible child and sullen teenager into a mature young adult,” he says. The gateway, only 16km (10 miles), from the heart of the capital, was trumpeted as the city centre answer for business travellers seeking fast connections to Europe when it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987. In which respect, the baby had something to bawl about: purpose built, modern, light and airy it might be, but there was no direct access from central London, and a short runway restricted operations to turbo-prop aircraft with limited range. Which begged the question: had politicians at Westminster thought the project through? Gooding admits that LCY was not viable in its first four or five years. Only when a runway extension was approved in 1991 could the youngster wipe away its tears of frustration, and with small jets such as the BAe146 joining aircraft like the turboprop Fokker 50 and Dash-7 the following year, the airport began to take off. “From 1996 on, we began to see growth,” says Richard Gooding. Not without some ups and downs in the boardroom for both the adolescent and adult airport. Losing money, it was sold in 1995 by owners Mowlem to entrepreneur Dermot Desmond, who authorised expansion. Back on the market again last year, it was bought by the American International Group (AIG) and Global International Partners (GIP), who have unveiled a new business plan. “After surviving the downturn caused by 9/11, when the financial services sector in the City was badly hit, we have seen sustained growth and recovery,” says Gooding. “We now have doubledigit growth, and last year welcomed 2.4 million passengers, a 12% increase over the previous year, with predictions of 2.8 million in 2007.” His confidence is well founded. The biggest spur to development was the opening of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to the airport in December 2005. Part funded by LCY, it links the gateway to the Underground network, enabling business travellers to reach LCY from the centre of the capital in around 45 minutes. It had taken two decades, but at a stroke, the new connection did away with a confusing variety of options, most involving shuttle buses. At one stage, there was even a water bus from Charing Cross Pier to a nearby jetty; fun perhaps, a touch of Venice, but patently a stop-gap measure and hardly the image for an airport dedicated to the smooth processing of executives en route to the business centres of Europe. Today, more than 50% of passengers travel to LCY on the DLR, and fly on a dozen airlines to more than 30 destinations around the continent, from Stockholm in the north to Rome in the south. There is also an expanding domestic network, covering key centres such as Liverpool, Dundee, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Edinburgh, Belfast and Manchester. The next step forward will be on March 25, when Air France launches a new link to Nice, and joins existing carriers on routes to Geneva, Madrid, Milan Linate, Zurich, Belfast, Dundee and Edinburgh. On the same day, British Airways will join the airlines serving Zurich, and will add Glasgow to the LCY network. “Our new owners have a master plan for long-term development,” says Richard Gooding. “This includes expanding terminal capacity, which means by 2030 we expect to be handling 8 million passengers a year, four times the current number. Having matured into a young adult, we have a great platform for growth.”
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