London’s City Airport is seeking planning permission for a £200m (US$320m) expansion that could double its capacity and better serve the business development of its surrounding district. Built in London’s Royal Docks in 1986 the airport currently serves over three million passengers a year over 70,000 movements and is a popular choice for business travellers to and from London’s central business district. In 2009 the airport was granted permission to escalate to 120,000 movements per annum by 2020.

Announcing the plans to expand the airport last month, City’s chief executive Declan Collier said that not only would permission for the expansion allow the airport to achieve this, but it would also allow the opportunity to better service the growing development taking place in the Royal Docks.

In May London Mayor Boris Johnson announced a $1.6bn deal to transform the Docks into London’s newest business district. Trade links were forged with China and other Asia-PAC nations in the deal which will see Chinese investor Dauphin (Advanced Business Parks/ABP) and UK partners Stanhope develop the 35-acre Royal Albert Docks site in London’s East End. The plans propose a 24-hour ‘mini-city’ of offices, shops and homes constructed on the Docks.

Collier said: "Increasingly, this area (the Royal Docks) is a focus for foreign investment - the recent announcement by ABP of its intention to build a multi-billion pound business park on Royal Albert Dock is one such example - and the connectivity to business centres across Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East that the airport provides, or will provide in the future, is central to this continuing.

"In terms of the wider UK economy, the airport already contributes £750m every year - through business and leisure tourist spend, the operation of businesses on site, productivity savings and air passenger duty; and when this project is completed, we can expect to double that amount."

The airport expansion plans focus on improving efficiency, and will not include additional runways nor extension of the existing runway. Instead the proposals aim to support six million passengers per year by expanding its infrastructure, developing a parallel taxilane to optimize runway capacity at peak times and providing new airplane parking stands and an extended terminal.

A spokeswoman for the airport advised that a 260-bed hotel with meeting and conference facilities is also planned at the airport, and that all of the works would be funded by the airport itself and constructed on land it already owns.

This article was reproduced and edited from an original story that appeared on our sister site Global Airport Cities.

COMING SOON… Aerotropolis Americas

The Aerotropolis Americas Conference and Exhibition (AACE) is the new annual event for the global airport development and real estate communities, conceived and organised by the same team behind the Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition (ACE). This new three-day conference and exhibition will build on the concept of the airport city and go further to explore how the broader aerotropolis can drive the economic development of a whole region up to 40 miles from the airport. The inaugural event will be held on October 29-31, 2013 in Dallas, Texas, and will be hosted by the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport. Click here for more information.