A TALE OF TWO CITIES

London City Airport and Luxembourg Airport are in the midst of ambitious expansion plans, each facing their own distinct challenges to succeed as a modern city-based airport.

AIRPORTS ARE EXPANDING, OVERHAULING and improving across the VLM Airlines network, responding to higher passenger numbers, greater competition and the many other demands placed upon them. You’ll see changes taking place practically wherever you go in Europe, but two airports currently in the process of major change are London City and Luxembourg. Both have bold ambitions, and are facing up to very different challenges to take them into the future.

At London City Airport the changes currently being seen are just a first step in the ambitious and wide reaching Master Plan, which aims to take the airport from 80,000 to 177,000 movements per year, equating to a leap from 2.9 million passengers in 2007 to eight million passengers a year by 2030. Such far sightedness is essential if it is to stay on course as one of London’s major transport hubs, but the airport also recognises that it has more immediate issues to address, and at the time of writing is coming to the end of a more modest set of changes.

Probably the most noticeable change is the extension of the departure lounge, which will gain 250 extra seats and a designated quiet area, plus three new retail concessions including a WH Smith outlet. Also essential are four additional parking stands, giving the airport a total of 14 stands where planes can embark and disembark passengers, helping to reduce the waiting times
created once aircraft have landed but must keep passengers on board until a stand is found.

“One thing we do recognise is that we’re very successful,” says Rupa Haria, press and PR manager for London City Airport. “Our passenger numbers refl ect that and last year we had record passenger growth, but what we don’t want is to become a victim of our own success. We recognise that on a Friday evening it does get very busy in the terminal, and that’s why, as an interim solution, we’ve taken away our business centre to give more space. Architects are in place, we’re deep in development of how to improve the terminal and we are thinking ahead.”

Costing a total of £30m (€38m), the London City Airport expansion plans are intended to cater for changes anticipated over the coming decades. Crossrail is expected to make a huge impact, with a station opening at Custom House, about 200m from the airport. It has been suggested that the opening of Crossrail will hurt the airport because business travellers coming from Canary Wharf and the City will have easy access to Heathrow. But Haria claims the opposite is true and people will actually travel from other parts of London to escape the chaos of Heathrow and make use of London City’s fast, hassle-free departures.

It’s a change that the traditionally business-focused airport is already seeing. “About 34% of our passengers now travel for pleasure,” says Haria. “We think they’re the same people who travel with us for business. They’re seeing the benefits and are taking their families through here because they realise there are other options for them. Because of the increase in families our baggage belts are having to cope with the extra luggage, since most business travellers just have a briefcase with them. So there’s a lot of reconfiguration going on, and we’re designing to cope with future demand.

Faced with so many changes over the coming years, it must be tempting to start from scratch and build a brand new designer airport for the region, as seen recently with Hamburg’s HAM 21 expansion scheme. Space limitations mean this option is not available to London City, but that’s not a problem faced by Luxembourg Airport, which unveiled its new state-of-the-art Terminal A on 25 April. Surrounded by green fields and a handful of hotels and businesses, the authorities in Luxembourg have had the luxury of continuing operations as normal while building an entirely new terminal next to the existing airport.

The original Terminal A was designed for 1.2 million passengers a year, significantly less than the 1.6 million who passed through it in 2006. One of the major aims in building the new terminal was to increase capacity, which will now be bumped up to three million passengers a year once the old Terminal A has been demolished and the new one is connected to the existing Terminal B.

It wasn’t just the size of the old Terminal A that made it unfit for purpose, though, a fact refl ected in the vast glass walls and light-filled halls of the new terminal. Where the original looked tired with its charming if outdated arrival and departure boards, the new terminal is an exercise in 21st-century corporate cool. Dark wood finishes and big airy spaces shout quality and sophistication, and it’s clear that this airport is being designed as a fitting gateway to Luxembourg’s burgeoning financial and business interests.

With 30 stands at the new airport and more space, Luxembourg has the potential for impressive growth, but like London City it must be wary of its success. The old terminal was small but passengers could pass through it quickly, while the vast spaces and moving walkways of the new terminal may create an obstacle. Learning from their past successes, while innovating and improving their offering, the future looks bright for these city-based airports.