City Airport: KEY STATISTICS AND A brief history

London City Airport opened in 1987 despite a campaign by local residents who felt it was wrong to build an airport so close to where people live in one of the poorest boroughs in the country, Newham.

Newham Council, the London borough where London City is situated, is the planning authority for the airport.

The airport promised it would be just served by small, quiet planes. But these promises were never kept. City has incrementally received permission for a 50% increase in the number of planes, capping them at 111,000 per year. In 2019, the last full year before COVID, there were slightly over 80,000 flights.

London City was initially seen as a business airport. It was built to help the reconstruction of East London after the Docks collapsed. For most of its short life, it has primarily served the business community, with for most of that time, over 60% of passengers being business (the average for all UK airports is less than 20%). But in recent years it has tried to attract more leisure passengers. Now 50% of trips are leisure.

The business market has meant that London City is a ‘rush-hour’ airport. Its busiest hours are between 7.15 am and about 10 am and then from 4.30 pm and about 8.30 pm. There are far fewer planes in the middle part of the day and there are restrictions at weekends.

The increase in the number of jets using the airport has a big effect on the area. For many people close to the areas the noise from the turbo-props was bearable; the noise of the jets is not. The jets require wider take-off paths so new take-off paths were introduced in 2009 with the result that wide swathes of East London are now suffering noise nuisance.

London City impacts more people than any other UK airport except Heathrow and Manchester.

In February 2016 all the arrival and departure flight paths were concentrated, bringing real problems for many areas of East and South-East London. Read people's stories of life under the concentrated flight paths: http://hacan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/HACAN-East-booklet.pdf

For many residents it has been a history of broken promises.

And here’s a video which illustrates those broken promises and what it is like to live with London City Airport today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dMy7cGUVo4

For a more detailed history click here.

DID YOU KNOW

• LCY already have permission for 111,000 flights per year; up to 592 flights per weekday

• LCY have 5 noise monitors close to the airport and 1 in SE28; the only monitor south of the river. You can access these monitors to see the noise measurement an aircraft from ANY airport creates as it flies over. https://webtrak.emsbk.com/lcy

• London is the most overflown city in the world, with 6 London airports (LCY, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Southend). We also hear long haul planes that overfly the UK

• Home buyers can research if your home is under a concentrated flight path, which could jeopardise your house sale

• A concentrated flight path (first introduced in 2016) means all aircraft follow the same route; like a motorway. It means there is no escape if you live under it. The routes will be reviewed in 2025. If you want your views heard, keep following HACAN East

• 16 London boroughs live under the concentrated flight paths of LCY

• LCY does not communicate with all those under their flight paths when they want to make changes that affect us, so our views often go unheard

In the UK there are over 50 campaign groups against airport noise, pollution and expansion. Every major country also have campaign groups. We are not alone.

• International studies have identified how aircraft noise and pollution impacts health; sleep deprivation, stress, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, dementia, etc

• LCY is in the London Borough of Newham, who have approved all previous expansion planning applications. However, Newham Council have rejected the latest application for more early morning flights and flights till 7:30pm on a Saturday

• There are several free apps you can download to monitor all the aircraft in your area. FlightRadar24 shows you which operator, height, time, date, etc. you’ll realise that not all noisy aircraft relate to LCY

• There is a free app you can download called Explane. It measures the decibels of one aircraft overhead. It also records which operator, height, time, date, etc. you can submit the information to an international database.

• Although you may record 75-80 decibels of noise from a single aircraft, the Civil Aviation Authority allows airports to average out the sound over 16 hours (7am-11pm) so it reduces the appearance of the impact on Londoners

• LCY suggest that when new generation aircraft finally come to the airport, they will be 5 decibels quieter. Scientists have proved that the human ear will not be able to detect any decrease in noise

• Your voice can be heard at the quarterly LCY Consultative Committee attended by HACAN East

City Airport: Key Statistics and A Brief History

City Airport: KEY STATISTICS AND A brief history

HACAN East

DID YOU KNOW