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A carrier based in Switzerland, SkyWork Airlines, has re-introduced a service between London City Airport and the Swiss capital, Bern. The route, described by the airline’s chief, Tomislav Lang, as a “real alternative” to flying to Zurich and Basel, offers quick access to the ski resorts of Champéry, Adelboden, and Grindelwald.

SkyWork, with its fleet of six aircraft, is one of the larger airlines operating out of Bern Airport. The carrier had previously specialised in routes to Northern Europe and the Balearic Islands, but an expansion to SkyWorks’s schedules, believed to be the largest in Bern Airport’s history, will add flights to Amsterdam, Madrid, and Budapest from October 2011.

The London City service, SkyWork’s only route to the UK, operates six times a week, on every day except Saturday. However, the flight will not reach full capacity until later this year, when the number of flights between Bern and the English capital is boosted to eleven rotations per week. British travellers will then be able to enjoy day trips to the Swiss city.

London City’s commercial chief, Matthew Hall, said that the airport would be “working closely” with SkyWork to “develop the relationship further”. Mr. Hall referred to the 28-year-old airline as an “experienced aviator”. SkyWork's mettle will be put to the test quickly, however, as the airline will be forced to compete with British Airways and Swiss International Airlines for passengers travelling to Switzerland. The two flag-carriers have enjoyed a monopoly on Bern-bound passengers in the recent past, as they offered the only two routes to Switzerland from London City: Zurich and Geneva.

Currently, SkyWork’s planes depart from the Docklands hub in the evening, at 19.55. Tickets are priced between £113 and £157 (each way) for travel in April.

Cityflyer, a short-haul subsidiary of British Airways (BA), has revealed that its summer timetable from London City Airport will include 39 flights per week to popular leisure destinations. Luke Hayhoe, commercial manager at Cityflyer, said that the expansion was in response to growing customer demand.

From May 2011, Cityflyer will double the number of seats available on flights to Nice in France. Capacity on routes to Palma on Majorca and to the Balearic Island of Ibiza will also increase from July 2011. Perhaps even more exciting, for Docklands flyers, at least, is the addition of three new routes from London City: Faro in Portugal, Malaga in Spain, and the French commune of Pau in the Pyrenees. Flights to Faro begin on June 7. The first plane to Malaga takes off a day later, on June 8.

Pau, on the other hand, will be served by Cityflyer from April 2 2011. Flights to the French town are available from just two UK airports (Southampton and Stansted) at present, making the destination a rather unique addition to London City’s schedules. Pau is located close to the border between France and Spain, but the town has little in common with Mediterranean resorts on similar longitude, such as Marseille and Nice. Fans of motor racing and architecture will find the greatest joy in Pau, but holidaymakers looking for a scenic route to the Pyrenean ski resorts should also consider flying to Pau’s Pyrenees Airport.

Flights from London City to Pau will operate three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The route will use an Avro RJ85 aeroplane, marking it as one of the first new routes from Cityflyer to use an aircraft other than the Embraer 170 or the 190. However, both Faro and Malaga will be served by the new Embraer jets. Cityflyer will travel to the Portuguese resort four times a week, while the route to Malaga will operate on a thrice-weekly basis. The two flights will be available all year round.

Blue Islands, an airline based at St. Peter Port on Guernsey, will begin flying from London City Airport to Jersey on April 18 2011. The flight, which costs £85 each way, is being marketed at business travellers, according to the carrier’s chairman, Derek Coates.

The move is a bold one. The route between London and the Channel Island has a reputation for being unprofitable. Flybe and Cityjet previously cancelled routes between the two destinations, after passenger interest waned.

As Jersey regards links to London as “vital” to the island’s economy, the success or failure of the connection has implications for local businesses and industries buoyed by tourism, such as hotels and boating. Paul Routier, minister for economic development on the island, referred to the resumption of the route to London as “great news”.

Jersey is an “island of opposites”, to quote the island’s tourist board, located close to the rolling fields of Normandy in France, but inextricably tied to the port cities of southern Britain. The island is famed for its clement summer weather, which easily rivals that of Devon and Cornwall in the UK. The island’s beaches are popular with visitors, providing views out over a turquoise English Channel.

Blue Islands claims that travellers will be able to get from Canary Wharf to the Jersey seaside within two hours. Planes leave London City at 0725 every weekday, and return from Jersey at 1715. The carrier is also offering a Sunday service, which operates to the same schedule as weekday flights. Tickets for the route are already on sale, and can be booked online.

Regular customers of British Airways (BA) could find themselves out of pocket in future, after the flag-carrying airline increased its fuel surcharge by £12. BA says that the rise reflects the “fluctuating price of worldwide oil” in light of ongoing political crises in North Africa and the Middle East.

The BBC News website says that the average surcharge applied to tickets will be in the region of £75-125, depending on the number of hours that the plane spends in the air.

For example, any flight lasting longer than nine hours, such as London to Singapore, will incur a fuel surcharge of £88, up from £76. On First and Club World flights the levy increases to £125, a difference of £17 over 2010 figures.

Passengers on flights lasting between three hours and nine hours can expect to pay a £75 fuel tax, while First and Club World customers will have to part with £105, increases of £12 and £17 respectively. Durations of less than three hours are considered short-haul flights, and are currently exempt from the increase in BA’s fuel surcharge.

Oil prices have skyrocketed in just six months, from $72 per barrel in August last year to $104 on February 17 2011. The hike has been attributed to a weak dollar and a spate of anti-government protests in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya. Worryingly, Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global, said that it was “unlikely (that) oil prices will settle any time soon".

BA’s fuel surcharge has served as a yardstick for the changing price of oil over the past few years. The London-based airline increased its fuel surcharge in 2008, before reducing it twice in subsequent years. Then, in December 2010, BA added £10 to the fuel tax, as oil prices reached $90 per barrel.

Despite ongoing criticism of its expansion plans, London City Airport has been voted the ‘Best UK Airport’ at the Business Travel Awards, an annual ceremony that celebrates excellence in the travel industry. The Docklands hub defeated Bristol, Southampton, and Gatwick airports in the American Express-sponsored category, to take home the gold.

City, the only airport in the capital itself, is the smallest of London’s four hubs, and the 14th largest airport in the UK overall. The Docklands site is notable (among pilots, at least) for its 5.8 degree approach path, which was once described as “stomach churning” by the CEO of jet hire firm, PrivateFly.

Judges at the Business Travel Awards applauded City’s “efficiency in dealing with weather disruption,” presumably referring to the chaos caused by heavy snowfall in December. The London airport does, however, have a peculiar disposition towards foggy conditions on winter mornings, which forced flight delays on October 8, November 16, and December 13, last year. The speed at which City adapted to “heightened security” was also praised.

However, City’s joy will no doubt upset Docklands residents, who recently lost a court case to prevent the airport increasing the number of annual flights by 50%. Fight the Flights, a pressure group, says that London City “already” causes significant pollution, both noise and air, and any further expansion could be devastating for the local environment. The case was dismissed by a judge on January 20, just a few days before the airport was crowned king at the Marriott Hotel in London.

Richard Gooding, chief at London City, was said to be “honoured” and “delighted” with the ‘Best UK Airport’ award. Other notable victors included Flybe in the ‘Best Short-Haul Airline’ category and Europcar in the ‘Best Car Rental Company.’ British Airways collected an impressive four awards, including ‘Best Long-Haul Airline’ and the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ for the flag-carrier’s boss, Willie Walsh.

The weather outside is frightful, as Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and a hundred other artists have crooned since the song was first penned in 1945. The snow has stopped, at least for the moment, but the subsequent thaw and occasional spot of rain have done little to improve the mood of Brits on the early morning commute.

Fortunately, the winter season is almost as lucrative for the aviation industry as the summer months, which means that flights to subtropical resorts, such as Lanzarote, Malta and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, are just a mouse click away.

The winter is also a time when British airlines begin promoting their schedules for summer 2011. Flybe led the charge in September, announcing new routes from Southampton, Gatwick, and Exeter, whilst flag-carrying airline British Airways (BA) has been releasing new flights on an almost weekly basis since October.

BA subsidiary CityFlyer has also been busy, unveiling a route from London City to Stockholm, Sweden, at the end of October, as well as new flights from the Docklands hub to Faro in Portugal and Malaga in Spain. The latter two destinations will be served by three and four weekly flights respectively from June 7 next year. Flights from City to Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Glasgow will also increase in frequency next year.

Summer routes to Palma and Ibiza will re-enter circulation at the end of March following a short hiatus over the winter. The additions combined represent a 40% increase in seats over summer 2010. Luke Hayhoe, commercial manager at CityFlyer, said that the expansion was made possible with the recent purchase of two new Embraer jets.

“There is clearly a large demand for leisure travel from London City and it's a growing market,” Luke told PR Newswire. The airline chief noted that the addition of Faro and Malaga was a way of “venturing further into the summer sun market”.

The centre of London might not fit most people’s definition of the word ‘beautiful’ but private jet hire firm, PrivateFly, has recognised London City Airport for having one of the most scenic approaches in the world. The Docklands site made seventh place out of ten airports in a list of “stunning and inspirational” airport approaches, one of only two hubs in the UK to make the grade.

Sion Airport, located in the Swiss Alps, came top of PrivateFly’s poll. The tiny hub is served by just one airline, the specialist skiing holiday firm, Snowjet, and is guarded by enormous mountains, making approaches particularly difficult for inexperienced pilots. PrivateFly’s advice for Sion-bound aviators is, “avoid the hospital.”

In second place, Princess Juliana Airport on the island of St. Martin is famous the world over for its unusual approach, which forces planes to cross the tourist hotspot, Maho Beach, at very low altitude. The airport is popular with local aviation enthusiasts, who can ‘ride the perimeter fence,’ essentially, hold on until they are thrown off by the engines of departing airliners.

Gustaf III Airport on Saint Barthélemy, in the Caribbean, came in third, whilst Gibraltar Airport was in fourth place. St Gallen-Altenrhein in Switzerland was placed fifth, with possibly the only runway in the world to have been built on a swamp. Sixth is the very impressive, Madeira Funchal, which has a runway suspended 70m above the Atlantic Ocean by 180 columns.

In seventh place is the ever-exotic hub, London City, which offers visitors views of the London Eye, Big Ben, and Canary Wharf. PrivateFly lauded City’s “fairground-like” approach – “the glide path is set at stomach-churning 5.8 degrees, as opposed to the usual three.”

Nepal’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport, created by Sir Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, was in eighth place, with a terrifying approach that involves sharp turns, long dives into rocky valleys, and an uphill landing. Ninth on PrivateFly’s list of airport approaches needs no introduction: Las Vegas, known worldwide as a luminous haven in the barren Nevada desert, and the setting for more than a few Hollywood movies.

Barra Airport on the Outer Hebrides was number ten, chosen for a rather odd characteristic – it disappears once a day. Barra sits on the beach, and flight times are organised around the movement of the tides. The hub also makes use of three runways, designed to alternate according to wind direction.

PrivateFly’s chief, Adam Twidell, said that the ten airports mentioned are a “reminder that a journey by air can be a life-enhancing experience.”

There can be few things more unsettling than being woken in the early hours by the sound of your house shaking, or being showered in bits of energy-efficient light bulb as it explodes over the dinner table, but these are precisely the kind of incidents that occur in towns such as Wythenshawe, Manchester, and Saffron Walden in Essex.

Rather than being haunted, or besieged by telekinetic villains, these two villages are under the spell of a rather more mundane evil – aircraft noise. Wythenshawe and Saffron Walden are ‘noise blighted’ communities, two of tens of examples across the UK, with many more likely to join their disgruntled ranks over the coming years.

The spotlight fell on towns and villages around London City Airport earlier this month, after a local pressure group, Fight the Flights, discovered that the Docklands hub produces more aircraft noise than Heathrow, up to 87 decibels in some cases, roughly equivalent to standing next to a petrol lawn mower.

Local newspaper, the Evening Standard, cited a recent change in flight paths over London, and a reduction in the number of propeller-driven aircraft flying from the hub, as the reason for the increased aircraft noise. Propeller planes, such as the Bombardier q400, are much quieter than jets.

However, the worst is yet to come for residents – London City has permission from Newham Council to expand its schedules by 50%, a plan that has angered Fight the Flights. The group, which claims to be ‘anti-expansion, not anti-aviation,’ is planning to take Newham Council to court, in a bid to have the scheduling boost halted.

Anne-Marie Griffiths, from Fight the Flights, was concerned, saying "it should not be forgotten that East London suffers a double whammy, of not only London City Airport flights, but also Heathrow flights overhead, adding to the misery." The two hubs lie on roughly the same latitude, on either side of London.

Fortunately, at least for residents living in the noise-blight zone, the morning of Tuesday November 16 was a quiet one in the Docklands area of London. Flights into and out of City were subject to “indefinite delays,” after dense fog reduced visibility to just 100m. The incident is the second of its kind at City in just over a month.

A route from London City Airport to Stockholm, Sweden, is the latest in a series of new destinations by UK flag-carrier, British Airways (BA).

The flight, which will be operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of BA, the appropriately named, CityFlyer, will enter circulation on January 9 2011. CityFlyer’s commercial boss, Luke Hayhoe, claims that Stockholm was “an exciting choice” for a new route, especially as a similar flight to Sweden’s Nordic neighbour, Denmark, had been a “success.”

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, was founded next to Lake Malaren, a place of some importance to local communities, in the middle of the 13th century. The city’s unusual position, atop several small islands on the coast of the Baltic Sea, has led some visitors to refer to Stockholm as the ‘Venice of the North.’

According to news website, ABTN, CityFlyer will eventually operate its London City-Stockholm connection with one of two new E-190 aircraft, due for delivery in "early spring."

The second aeroplane remains in operational limbo, however, but Luke Hayhoe claims that the airline “presents opportunities for us to further expand our London City schedule.”

Despite being owned by BA, CityFlyer has none of its parent company’s international aspirations. The airline, which only has the one base at London City, travels to destinations in Western Europe exclusively, including Glasgow and Edinburgh in the UK, Copenhagen in Denmark, and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in Holland. A CityFlyer route to Chambery in France will also begin operating from the Docklands hub on December 18 2010.

Aeroplanes flying to and from London City Airport had their plans scuppered on Friday, after a heavy fog bank rolled into the Docklands hub, grounding several flights, and forcing airborne planes to land elsewhere.

The incident, which is the first closure of its kind since the winter of 2009/10, excluding the recent volcanic ash crisis, resulted in delays to outbound flights, many of which will have been routes operated by British Airways. Up to 18 take-offs were aborted, and 10 inbound flights from other airports were hastily cancelled.

London City is one of the most fog-prone airports in the UK, succumbing to the phenomenon regularly during the winter months. Speaking about a similar event in February 2008, a spokesperson for the London hub claimed that City’s short runway leaves limited margin for error, as take-offs and landings are steeper than at Gatwick Airport, for example. Weather conditions that result in low visibility, such as fog or snow, complicate an already difficult approach for inbound aircraft.

In comparison, Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire is rarely hit by fog, often serving as a ‘safety net’ for planes that can’t land at Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Planes bound for London City were sent to Heathrow and Gatwick on Friday, as the Docklands hub battled with poor weather conditions into the afternoon.

The BBC News website reports that the nearby Woolwich ferry terminal was also hit by fog, delaying departures, and preventing travellers from crossing the Thames.

Despite a morning of cancellations, London City reported only a minor backlog of delayed flights. The airport had been urging travellers to contact their respective airlines before leaving their homes.

Embattled airline British Airways has suffered another setback to its business plans, after posting an annual loss of £531m – the biggest profit slump in its 36-year history. Current boss Willie Walsh insinuated that BA needs ‘permanent change across the company’ if the flag-carrier is to return to profit.

The Court of Appeals has also overturned a ban on fresh strikes by BA’s cabin crew team, guaranteeing up to 15 days of disruption throughout May and June. The airline lost £43m in March, as 12,000 members of the Unite union voted in favour of industrial action. BA could now face cancellations throughout the summer, including during the 2010 World Cup.

It’s hard not to feel bad for Willie Walsh, but his mulish attitude has not helped diffuse the row with Unite, regardless of how many politicians wade into the melee. The recent £531m profit dive, which was announced on May 21, was immediately blamed on the union, an odd move given the scale of disruption caused by Eyjafjoll’s smog.

Derek Simpson, joint chief at Unite, urged BA to stop acting ‘macho’ and ‘silly’, whilst a BBC newsreader insinuated that there was too much ‘bad blood’ between BA and Unite for there ever to be an amicable conclusion. BA’s resilience is admirable, but ultimately self-defeating, and a deal with Unite will have to be brokered soon if Willie Walsh wants to prevent further damage to the airline.

With a strike pencilled in for Monday, BA has begun arranging its contingency plans. The carrier plans to sacrifice Heathrow Airport to spare Gatwick and London City from cancellations, but the airline’s debt could still balloon by the end of June, regardless of how well BA prepares its hubs for another Unite siege.

A video interview with Willie Walsh is available for viewing at the British Airways website. Mr Walsh intimates that the cabin crew branch of Unite, the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA), is refusing BA's offerings of peace.

Disruptions caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjoll, have contributed to the loss of flights out of London City Airport. Domestic routes to Plymouth and Newquay will be axed by Air Southwest from the 21st May, after the airline lost £300,000 to six days of delays in April.

Air Southwest called the decision a ‘surprise’ and a ‘disappointment,’ and cited flagging demand for the route as the impetus for the cull. The airline will continue to operate a daily route from Gatwick to Devon and Cornwall, but there will soon be no air link between central London and the southwest.

The cut has caused much upset in Plymouth, the airline’s home, with local businesses and even the Chambers of Commerce expressing dismay at the news. Peter Davis, director of Air Southwest, explained that the airline needed to ‘review its network’ of flights in order to make the ‘very best use of company resources.’

Devon and Cornwall have been linked to central London for barely a year, but the route had enjoyed some success in the capital, due largely to an advertising campaign that targeted harried Tube travellers. The flight ultimately became a popular business service, albeit one that never ballooned as expected.

Air Southwest has maintained bases at Plymouth and Newquay airports for a number of years, flying direct to the Channel Islands, the Irish Republic, and Manchester, among other destinations. The airline operates small turboprop aircraft such as the Bombardier Dash, a favourite of budget airline, Flybe.

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British Airways (BA) has slammed Unite’s ‘callous disregard’ for air travellers, after the union urged its members to reject a new pay deal from BA boss, Willie Walsh. The move could result in industrial action from the 14th May onwards, with walkouts lasting between ten and twelve days.

Willie Walsh once claimed that Unite is trying to ‘ruin’ British Airways. Despite the union’s protestations, the longer that BA is held to ransom by its own staff, the more likely it is that the airline will be toppled by debts and tribunals. Unite clearly have the upper hand, but that hasn’t stopped the union launching a fresh attack on Britain’s flag-carrier.

Unite was responsible for strikes totalling seven days during March, costing BA around £45m. Not to be outdone, the airline retaliated, and revoked all travel perks for striking staff, including free travel. The move was seen as an act of desperation at the time, but BA’s revenge struck an unexpected chord with staff members.

Yesterday, Unite demanded that BA reinstate all employee benefits, in addition to the demands that it has made in previous months. The request directly precipitated Unite’s call for its members to reject BA’s latest pay deal, and could result in further strikes throughout May and June. BA cannot afford any more setbacks, however.

The recent eruption of the Eyjafjoll volcano stripped an estimated £100m from BA’s bank balance, and £2.15bn from the European aviation industry as a whole. Unite remains unsympathetic. Casual observers could be forgiven for thinking that Unite is trying to punish BA’s hubris, rather than protecting the interests of its members.

Unite recently founded the specialist cabin crew branch, BASSA, otherwise known as the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association. Despite its name, the department exists solely for the protection of BA cabin crew, and is currently polling its members for opinions on the length of future strikes.

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Walsh Claims Healthy Figures

London City is the UK’s top airport, according to Wanderlust magazine. The airport garnered an 85% approval rating, 2.6% more than its closest rival, Southampton, and 3% more than Newcastle in third place.

Founded in 1993, Wanderlust is a publication aimed at ‘independent and adventurous travellers'. The firm routinely hands out awards to leaders of the travel and tourism industry, focussing on airports, airlines and guidebook publishers.

The poll highlighted the growing importance of smaller airports, with both Robin Hood and Exeter making the top 10, with 77% and 74% respectively. Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh also proved popular with British travellers.

None of the UK’s airports made it into the global top 10. Top of the list was Singapore Changi with an impressive 92.5% score. Britain’s most famous airports, Heathrow and Stansted, absconded from the rankings altogether.

Perhaps the most interesting of the Wanderlust accolades is the Disservice to Travel award, which is handed to companies and individuals with diabolical customer service skills, or to technologies that have upset hundreds of travellers.

Unsurprisingly, the full-body scanner was a firm favourite of the editors, but the Met Office and workers' union Unite was the ungrateful recipient of the award.

London City has held the Gold Award in the Top UK Airport category for four years now. Wanderlust praised the airport’s commitment to customer service, citing its central location and ease of access as a boon to travellers.

You can view the results of the 2010 Travel Awards on the official Wanderlust website.

On Sunday morning, Swiss airline, Baboo, began taking orders for a new twice-daily service from London City Airport to Geneva, Switzerland, offering one-way flights from £51 per person.

The carrier, which has just five planes in its fleet, is hoping to boost business links between England and the Italian cities of Florence and Venice, opening up central Europe to rich executives and shoestring travellers alike.

Founded in 2003, Baboo maintains a base at Geneva Airport, and a vision to unite quality with affordable prices. The airline carries the red and white of the Swiss cross, painting their aeroplanes with nice flowery patterns.

Baboo will operate under a code share agreement with Irish airline, CityJet, whereby both companies can sell seats on their partner’s planes. Air France has also begun offering flights to Switzerland.

Richard Gooding, chief executive at London City, was pleased with the airport’s latest acquisition: “Baboo’s on-board product is excellent and we know it will be well-received by our passengers who demand a high level of service."

The airline has marketed the London City flights at Swiss executives, but a spokesperson for the company was keen to provide Brits with an alternative to the autumnal weather, citing London’s swirling fog as a reason to pack up and fly away.

Intrepid travellers will be able to extend their route from Geneva to a number of Swiss and Italian cities, and to Ireland and Scotland on the return trip. The first flight of the day departs at 9AM from London City, arriving in Geneva three hours later.

London City Airport is set for a multi-million pound makeover in 2010. Despite the global meltdown, officials at London's biggest business airport clearly believe there's a future in air travel from the heart of the English capital.

The terminal reconfiguration will be managed by Atkins Global, an engineering and design consultancy which has been responsible for several major infrastructure projects at City Airport.

The planned changes to the terminal building are partly in response to the shift towards online check-in. With business and leisure passengers now frequently checking in from their office PC or even their web-enabled mobile phone en-route to the airport, London City's management team have identified the need for a new style of airport.

When the airport opened in 1987, e-tickets were still over a decade away. But these days there simply isn't the need for the more traditional, girl-behind-a-counter approach!

Online check-in makes the whole experience of flying easier and more streamlined and the modifications at City Airport are in the same vein. The new terminal design will help to avoid bottlenecks and keep passengers moving through an airport keen to hold on to its reputation as one of London's fastest.

Melanie Burnley, Director of Terminal Services, explained that they were "introducing additional security lanes to respond to the change in passenger behaviour". This involved more online check-ins and less need for traditional check-in desks. All in all she said that this would enable more passengers to go straight through to security upon arrival.

The facility already boasts of its "no-queues" policy, and claims that the average transit time for passengers going through security is just two minutes. It's an impressive statistic compared with many of the London airports and customer satisfaction is clearly high on London City's list of priorities.

London City Airport has the most expensive car park in the country, the Daily Express has revealed. At £186 for a week long stay, a pre-booked space costs almost as much as two Ryanair flights to Berlin, even allowing for extras such as baggage.

A two-week stay tips the scales at £287, and that is providing that all spaces are booked in advance. Already, London City is charging customers six times the national average for long stay parking.

Turning up unprepared on departure day adds more than one hundred pounds to the cost of a week’s parking, whilst the fee for a fortnight skyrockets to more than £500, a figure that could pay for a long weekend on the Continent.

Airport officials claim that the charges have strategic value, encouraging passengers to leave their cars at home.

Norman Baker, MP for the Lewes constituency, has taken umbrage over the fees. The Liberal Democrat pointed out that excessive parking charges devalue budget airlines by adding extra costs to otherwise cheap flight tickets.

"It’s a rip-off. The amount being charged is probably enough to pay for a return flight to New York," Mr. Bates said.

London City has enjoyed an otherwise productive September. After being praised for the punctuality of its planes, the airport has announced plans to redevelop its terminal building during 2010.

Responding to the boom in online check-in facilities, London City wants to give passengers greater access to security desks, reducing the time that customers have to spend in queues, and improving connections between flyers and resident airlines.

Brave travellers can book their parking space in advance on the Airport Parking Shop website.

London City Airport is anticipating the arrival of two new aircraft, as British Airways, the flag-carrier of the United Kingdom, launches a new route to New York City.

In March, British Airways announced a pre-tax loss of £401m, the biggest profit slump in the airline’s history. With the credit crunch in full, malevolent swing, BA had no choice but to abandon transatlantic flights from many of its UK hubs.

Almost six months later, with the recession in retreat, the airline has reasserted its dominance over UK airspace by purchasing two uniquely configured Airbus A318 aircraft, the first order of its kind.

Affectionately known as the ‘baby bus’, the A318 is designed to accommodate steep approach gradients (the angle at which the aircraft has to descend) with greater ease than the rest of the Airbus catalogue.

BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, was keen to show off his latest investment, claiming the A318 "has a big role to play in bringing a new dimension of style and convenience to the London-New York route”.

Mr Walsh was quick to point out that the A318s will carry the BA001 flight number, a designation previously reserved for Concorde.

The trip is very much a luxury purchase, however, offering a handful of business-class-only seats. With on-board mobile internet, text messaging services, and just 32 places per plane, BA’s new toys are marketed towards the discerning business executive.

Excluding Saturdays, British Airways is offering a daily London City–New York service from the 29th of September. An additional six flights will be offered from the middle of October. Prices are in the range of £2,664 per adult for a return ticket.

Permission has recently been granted by Newham Council for a massive expansion of London City Airport, which will see the number of arriving and departing flights increase from 73,000 to 120,000 per year. Whether this can be viewed as good news for the economy or a disaster for the environment depends very much on whom you believe.

A spokesperson from Newham council has proudly boasted of the benefits of the expansion which will include an extra £26 million for the economy, new jobs for local residents, a boost for local tourism and also the possibility of companies investing in the future in the local infrastructure.

According to a council spokesperson, residents’ concerns over noise and disruption have been taken into account in approving the planning application, and he has sought to reassure the local populace that there will be no additions to the early morning schedules and that additions to the weekend and night time flights will be kept to the bare minimum.

However, green campaigners, including Friends of the Earth, have been quick to criticise the council saying that their decision is in “brazen conflict” with the “need to tackle climate change” and that the potential for easing the local area’s unemployment has been overstated. A campaigner called on Boris Johnson to stand by his pledge to make London a green city.

Added to environmental concerns are the health implications arising from airport noise and pollution. The European Commission has stated in the past that living near an airport can increase an individual’s risk of both heart disease and stroke.

Protesters from the group Plane Stupid have been at it again, this time targeting the corporate world of private air travel by causing disruption at London City Airport.

On Wed 10 June, four women and one man managed to break into the airport’s grounds at 2.30am using bolt cutters. They were dressed up as businessmen in bowler hats and suits, and they somehow managed to chain themselves to the wheel of a private jet.

The group made a human wheel clamp around the wheel of their chosen plane, and had to be cut off by police who arrived four minutes later. They were then arrested, and a spokeswoman for the airport said that they expect “arrests for criminal damage and breaking and entering”.

This is of course not the first time the group has managed to cause mayhem at the UK’s airports. 50 of the group protested at Stansted Airport in December and managed to force the closure of the runway for a while.

One thing that is so incredible about all this is how easy they find it break into these airports. Nancy Birch, the spokeswoman for the group, claimed the airport was a “major terrorist target”, but that “getting into it was child’s play.” This is a worrying fact by itself, and perhaps the group is actually doing the airports a favour by helping them to increase their security measures.

The reason behind the protest was to highlight the fact that private jets are far worse for the environment per passenger than commercial planes, and the group believe that they should be stopped altogether.

In terms of actual disruption, however, the protest was not entirely effective. A spokeswoman for the airport said that there had only been a “slight delay” to the schedule as a result.

Next month, business people and travellers from the south west of the country will be provided with a direct route to the very heart of London. A new service has just been announced by Air Southwest that will provide a route from Newquay to London City via Plymouth twice a day, and it is set to be launched on April 20.

The aim is to open up London’s financial areas to the south west, providing by far the quickest way of travelling to and from the heart of the capital (or vice versa) in a day.

The main aim is to provide a route for business travellers. Richard Gooding, the chief executive of London City Airport, said that the new route will provide an “obvious choice for the business traveller” because of the airport’s location near Canary Wharf and the easy connections throughout the south east.

The Dash 8-300 aircraft, which has room for 50 passengers, will leave Newquay at 7.45am and arrive in London at 9.30am, returning at 7.05pm. In the other direction, it will leave London City at 9.55am, arriving in Plymouth at 11.05am before heading on to Newquay.

And despite being for business passengers, the flight is not going to break the bank. The £29 tickets (each way) represent one of the cheapest ways to make the journey to London, and the 15-minute check-in time is great for people in a rush.

The managing director at Air Southwest, Peter Davies, said that the route would “revolutionise” travel between the south west and London.

For the superstitious amongst us, it may come as no surprise to learn of a “hard landing” last Friday – the 13th of Feb. At around 8.00pm, a BA plane coming from Amsterdam suffered a collapse of its nose wheel and crash landed at London City Airport.

All 67 passengers and 4 crew members were evacuated safely using the emergency chutes, although there were minor cuts and scrapes as people hit the tarmac. According to one eye witness, passengers had remained calm until the plane started filling with smoke, at which point people became agitated at the time it was taking to evacuate.

Ambulances and other emergency response vehicles and personnel were quick to arrive at the scene and two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries. As a result of the incident, eleven flights due to arrive at City Airport that night had to be diverted: eight to Stansted, one to Southend, one to London Heathrow, and one to Luton. Although the airport re-opened the following day, delays were to be expected.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch has started an investigation into the cause of the accident. Only days earlier a plane of the same type, flying from Glasgow to London City, suffered the same problem with its nose wheel, although the plane did not have to be evacuated.

The plane in question is an Avro RJ-100 which has been manufactured in the UK since 1992. BA have ten but there are 152 in service globally. Two have been involved in major incidents in the past with 99 casualties.

There has been much speculation recently over whether BA would join the ranks of Silverjet and Eos in offering an all business class service to New York. In February, the airline announced its new twice daily service from London City Airport to JFK set to start in 2009. This will be the first service to operate from that airport to a destination outside Europe.

This will come as welcome news for business travellers working in Canary Wharf and the City of London, who wish to avoid the infamous “Heathrow hassle”. Currently, City business travellers to New York have either to travel across London and out to Heathrow, or trek up to Luton or Stansted, all of which can take up to an hour. City airport on the other hand is on the doorstep for City workers and, being a small and easy to navigate airport, means that the minimum check-in time is 15 minutes, as opposed to 45 minutes at the other airports.

Of course, as anyone who has endured the long queues (even in the fast track business lanes) at Heathrow will testify, the 45 minute minimum check-in time can often leave you hot under the collar and with little margin for error. The BA service from City airport will only carry 32 passengers, meaning that the time taken to board and disembark from the plane will be kept to a minimum.

The only downside with the new London City service is that the flights will have to stop for refuelling at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland. This is because the planes cannot take off fully laden with fuel due to the short runways at City airport. This will add 90 minutes to the flight time of their rivals, but BA is hoping that travellers will be able to clear US Customs at Shannon, cutting down on the time taken to clear the airport on arrival in New York.

With favourable winds, the return flight will be non-stop and only quarter of an hour longer than the flight to Heathrow. The planes will be new Airbus A318 jets with 32 seats, all converting into flat beds, and prices will be similar to the BA Heathrow to New York service, which varies from £1300 to £4600.

Lawrence Hunt, chief executive of Silverjet, believes that business travellers will baulk at the prospect of getting settled in their seats and then having to pack up and disembark an hour later at Shannon. Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA, however, is confident that this “niche service” flying passengers “between the heart of the two largest financial centres in the world” will be a success. Just who is right remains to be seen but perhaps the real beneficiaries will be the well-heeled leisure travellers, who are paying for their own fares, and who will benefit from increased competition between the carriers.

London City Airport has had to defend its plans for expansion, following a complaint from the Labour MP for the local area, Erith and Thamesmead. John Austin is concerned that the proposed increase in aircraft movements from 80,000 to 120,000 will affect his constituents adversely, both in terms of noise and general disturbance. He is calling for a public enquiry, should the London Borough of Newham give the green light to the plans. He also claimed that Bexley council residents would not receive funding for sound insulation, unlike residents in other affected areas.

A London City Airport spokeswoman has, however, defended the plans for expansion, saying that they form an important part of the regeneration of the Docklands area and, whilst it is recognised that some negative impact is inevitable for local residents, a careful balance has to be struck. She denied Mr Austin’s allegations that sound insulation would not be available and said furthermore that the measured threshold of sound at which such insulation is deemed necessary is lower in the London City airport area than in any other part of the country.

London City Airport is keen to be a “good neighbour” and will continue to enforce practices already in operation, such as a ban on night flights, 24 hour closure over weekends, and restrictions on noisy planes and the running of engines whilst on the ground.

Although the expansion may be bad news for local residents, there is no doubt that it is good news for employment in the area, with the promise of 2500 extra jobs in the period to 2030 with many more off site.