Residents and environmental campaigners have said they are outraged by ambitious plans for a £400million expansion of London’s City Airport.
On its 30th anniversary, the airport said the revamp would allow two million more passengers to use the airport every year from 2025, with 30,000 additional flights annually. It also includes extending the terminal.
Following that, airport chief Declan Collier said he was looking forward to a ‘bright future’ for the east London airport.
London City Airport has marked its 30th anniversary by publishing artists’ impressions of its £400 million redevelopment that will allow two million more passengers per year to use the airport
The project includes extending the terminal to accommodate more passengers, building seven new aircraft stands and creating a parallel taxiway to boost runway capacity
However campaigners and residents have told MailOnline ‘enough is enough’ and described the airport as a ‘blight’ on east London.
Under the plans that were unveiled in artists’ impressions yesterday, the airport hopes to build seven new aircraft stands and create a parallel taxiway to boost runway capacity.
Four-and-a-half million passengers used City Airport last year and around 50 routes are now served.
But residents have expressed concern at the huge redevelopment.
Alan Haughton, who lives under the flight path in Tower Hamlets, told MailOnline: ‘What we are concerned about is the huge increase in noise. We are also concerned about traffic that will be going to the airport…for example they are increasing the car park by 33 per cent and there will be 1,200 car parking spaces.
‘The concentrated flight path, which was introduced in February last year, has seen the noise increase by 200 per cent in a year. Planes now go on one flight route, whereas they used to be dispersed across London.
‘This affects residents in some of the poorest areas of London, such as Newham, Barking, Leyton and Tower Hamlets, and we also get noise from Heathrow.
‘The expansion plans are completely set up so the residents cannot understand the documents. We weren’t consulted on the concentrated flight paths and they are highly technical documents. For this expansion, it’s 8,000 pages long, it’s a full time job to sit down and go through that.
‘We will continue to challenge the airport. We have gone from an airport local people used to love to something they hate because it’s so intrusive and so big.
‘Enough is enough, no more expansion and no more concentrated flight paths. Let residents live in what little peace they actually get.’
The east London airport is also building the UK’s first digital air traffic control tower, which will begin operation in 2019
Two million more passengers per year will be able to use to use the airport from 2025, with 30,000 additional flights annually
Robert Barnstone, from the anti-expansion campaign group Hacan East, said: ‘Since the concentrated flight paths were introduced, people’s lives in east and south London have been blighted. We are talking about very densely populated parts of London, where hundreds of thousands of people live.
‘With this planned expansion at City Airport, I’m concerned we could see even more flights on these routes and there are another 30,000 flights planned every year with this expansion plan.
‘However we have a lot of support, from the Greater London Authority, from the Mayor of London and from MPs across east and south London so I really do think momentum is on our side.
‘The changes were literally made overnight on February 4 last year when the concentrated flights began and we had people complaining to us from areas of London we’d never really had before, in areas of south London.
‘At the same time areas like Leytonstone just took off and so many people were just furious they were treated like this. No one really knew it was happening. We haven’t got the power to communicate with every household in east and south London. Surely that’s the duty of the airport.’
The first commercial flight at the airport was operated by Brymon Airways with 40 passengers flying from Plymouth. In its first full month, the much anticipated airport welcomed 8,235 fliers
Jenny Bates, an air pollution campaigner, told MailOnline: ‘City Airport should certainly not expand the airport anymore.
‘It would mean more passengers coming to the airport and more road traffic, which would mean more air pollution which would be unacceptable in areas that are already over the legal limit, and it must not cause any new breach.
‘The airport is a blight on east London and any expansion must be opposed. There’s already been enough suffering and disturbance for people in east London, who are living in some of the poorest parts of London and the country.’
However Mr Collier said City Airport had ‘become an intrinsic part of London’s transport system.’
The first commercial flight at the airport was operated by Brymon Airways with 40 passengers flying from Plymouth. City now serves around four million passengers a year. Its location close to the centre of the capital has made London City particularly popular with business travellers.
Mr Collier said: ‘Over the past 30 years, London City Airport has become an intrinsic part of London’s transport system; growing responsibly to a record-breaking 4.6 million annual passengers in 2016, creating local employment, and connecting business and leisure travellers with the UK, Europe and beyond.
‘As we celebrate this anniversary, we look to a bright future ahead and the world-class transformation which is soon to commence.
‘The City Airport Development Programme presents the opportunity to create an airport of the future, which will help meet demand in the London market and increase connectivity.’