120,000: ANNUAL FLIGHT MOvEMENTS ALLOWEd FROM LCY, FOLLOWING RECENT PLANNING APPROvAL – AN INCREASE OF 50 PER CENT
airport remains open, as was the case in Montreal, it keeps all London to Cardiff. Many businesses have positioned themselves

As a city airport, how important is it to maintain good
the business and the new one closes. in the Thames valley area to be near to Heathrow. However, relationships with the local community?
So the core question concerning the mayor’s proposal is without taking that step, any new airport is bound to fail. We receive far fewer complaints than other airports, partly
not whether a new airport should be built in the Thames because of our community work. We have a dedicated
Estuary, but whether Heathrow should close. British Airways will fly to new York from LCY next community relations team, and are currently running some 140
Will any of the airlines move from fortress Heathrow to the year. is your growth strategy to go longer haul? different schemes, the main theme of which is up-skilling local
new airport? I strongly doubt it. Every time an airport has been All-business class flights to New York are scheduled to start next people so they can get jobs at the airport. Around 70 per cent
opened as an overflow from Heathrow (Gatwick, Stansted) autumn, and promise to be a huge success. British Airways (BA) of our employees live within a five-mile radius. This is especially
the airlines have stayed put. Closing Heathrow would be a very already operates the similar OpenSkies service from Paris and valuable considering that some of the poorest parts of the city
complex decision that would affect the whole economy from Amsterdam, so it has experience in this market and has shown fall within that area. And, if the majority of people living nearby
that the concept works. benefit from the airport, they are less likely to complain.
Because of the length of our runway, aircraft will need to We are also far less intrusive than most airports – we shut at
refuel at Shannon, Ireland, before continuing on to New York. night and also for 24 hours from Saturday lunchtime until
However, this will actually work to our advantage, because US Sunday lunchtime. We have always been very strict about that.
immigration and customs can be dealt with there. Anyone that
has travelled to the US knows that this can be a lengthy process And when things don’t go right, or people
on arrival, so it will save them valuable time. Return flights will aren’t happy?
operate non-stop from New York to LCY. What many businesses can’t get their heads around is that
I think the whole airline community will be watching the what matters most is not whether you make mistakes, but how
new BA service very closely. The A318 aircraft has the you deal with them. You just have to put your hands up, admit
capability to fly for up to five hours from LCY, so it’s certainly you were wrong and explain what you’re going to do about it.
possible that longer-haul routes could play a greater part in Once or twice, we’ve mislaid the bags of very high profile
the future of the airport. passengers. Our response was to immediately charter a plane to 31
However, we’re not forecasting that just yet. We’ll go and fetch them. It cost us a small fortune, but it was the
examine the opportunities carefully so that when the right correct thing, and actually the easier thing, to do. While we
opportunity comes along we’ll have a thorough may never get the money back through business directly with
understanding of whether or not it would work. that passenger, they will tell many others about their
experience. By responding as we did, we turned it around so
that they talked in positive terms about us, rather than negative.
People underestimate just how important gossip can be to the
success of a business.
“WHAT MATTERS MOST IS noT WHeTHer You mAke
misTAkes, BUT HOW YOU dEAL WITH THEM”
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