LONDON CITY AIRPORT

30 years serving the capital

14 mins to Canary Wharf 22 mins to Bank 25 mins to Westminster

• Voted Best Regional Airport in the world*

• Only 20 mins from terminal entrance to departure lounge

• On arrival, just 15 minutes from plane to train

*CAPA Regional Airport of the Year Award - 27/10/2016

For timetables and bookings visit:

londoncityairport.com

FAST, PUNCTUAL AND ACTUALLY IN LONDON.

30 YEARS OF SERVING LONDON

00814_30th Anniversary Book_2x 177x240_Tower Bridge.indd 1 26/06/2017 13:22

LONDON CITY AIRPORT

30 years serving the capital

Malcolm Ginsberg

Foreword by Sir Terry Morgan CBE, Chairman of London City Airport 7

Now and Then 8

Introduction by Malcolm Ginsberg 9

Prince Philip and London City Airport 10

The Airport Directors 12

1 ReectionsonLondonCityAirport 13

2 HistoryoftheLondonDocklands 23

3 TheLondonDocklandsDevelopmentCorporation 29

4 AShortHistoryofBrymonAirways 33

5 LondonCityAirways(EurocityExpress) 39

6 TheDocklandsLightRailway 43

7 Canary Wharf 49

8 ExCeL London 55

9 The Airport Timeline 61

1981–1986 64

 HarveyElliott 67

Feature from The Times5November1987 68

The Historic Collection 70

1987–2017 London City Airport and World 72

10 TheAircraft 133

 BritishAerospaceBAe146andAvroRJ 134

 Brazil–AviationandEmbraer 139

 Canada–deHavillandandBombardier 143

The AIso Rans by Ian Harbison 148

11 AHeavySWISSLanding 151

12 New York from London City Airport 155

It’s All About Retail 160

13 LondonCityAirportPrivateJetCentre 161

14 CityAirportDevelopmentPlan 165

15 LondonCityAirportConsultativeCommittee 169

London City Airport Winter 2017–2018 Destinations 172

16 CorporateSocialResponsibility 173

17 The Future of the Royals 177

TheTop20Routes2016 183

Contents

A Very Big Thank You

My most sincere gratitude to Sharon Ross for her major contribution to the editorial and Alan Lathan, once of

JeppesenAirwayManuals,forhisknowledgeoftheindustryanddiligenceinproongthistome.Thislistisfar

fromcompletebutthesearesomeofthepeoplewhosereminiscencesandmemorieshavehelpedmecompilea

bookthatis,Ihope,atruereectionofaremarkableachievement.LondonCityAirport–LCYtoitsfriendsand

thetravellingpublic–isagreatsuccess,andforLondontoo.Mygratefulthanksgotoallthecontributorstothis

book, and in particular the following: Andrew Scott and Liam McKay of London City Airport; and the retiring Chief

ExecutiveDeclanCollier,withoutwhosesupporttheprojectwouldneverhavegotofftheground.

TomAppleton  Ex-deHavillandCanada

SirPhilipBeck  Ex-JohnMowlem&CoPlc(Chairman)

PatByrne  CityJetExecutiveChairman

Alison Chambers Emerald Media

DermotDesmond  PreviousownerofLondonCityAirport

DavidDorman  DorwayPublicRelationsonbehalfofBAeSystems

Guy Douglas Embraer

JohnGarwood  CanaryWharfPlc

Pandora George Bullet PR for Royal Docks Management Authority

RoyGrifns  Ex-LondonCityAirport(Chairman)

Ian Harbison Air Transport Publications

StuartInnes  Ex-LondonDocklandsDevelopmentCorporation

MikeJohnson  Ex-BrymonAirways

AlanLathan  Ex-Jeppesen

Mike Luddy The Royal Docks Ltd

DavidPeglar  ExCeLLondon

JamesRees  ExCeLLondon

Bob Schumacher Ex-Eurocity Express (now with United Airlines)

Andnally,IwouldliketothankmywifeLindawhohasfollowedmyinterestinLondonCityAirportfromthevery

beginningandforherpatiencewithmewhileIwascreatingthisbook.

Photographs

ManythankstoDaveWilliamsofExpressPhotoServiceswhohasrecordedLCYfromthebeginning,forover20

years,andhasbeenverygenerouswithhistimeinhelpinguslocatephotographsforthisbook.AlsoVicAbbott,

aNATScontroltowerengineer,alsowiththeairportvirtuallyfromthebeginning,andakeensnappertoo;plus

veteranphotographersMikeHooks,PeterMarchandBarryWheeler.

We are indebted to The Times fortheuseofitsextensivephotolibraryfortheTimelinechapterandLondon

CityAirportforitsarchives.OurthanksalsototheDocklandsMuseum,theRoyalDocksGroupandRoyalWharf

forthemaponpages184/5;andtheBruceMcClarenFoundationinNewZealandwhomanagedtondanimageof

ChrisAmonandhispalBillBryce.

Malcolm Ginsberg

PublishedbyBusinessTravelNewsLtd2017

POBox758,EdgwareHA84QF,UnitedKingdom

www.btnews.co.uk

ISBN978-1-900438-07-0

ProducedbyFortyEditorialServicesLtd

Printed at Short Run Press, Exeter, United Kingdom

Distributed by Crécy Publishing Ltd

www.crecy.co.uk

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outpriorwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher.

The information in this book is true and complete

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LOVE

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Foreword

I was delighted to be asked, and to accept the

position as Chairman of London City Airport in

March2017.Theairport,inmyview,istheheart-

beatofbusinessyinginLondon.

The fact that we are celebrating the 30th

anniversaryofLondonCityAirportisdownto

the dedication of its staff, past and present, who

maketheairporttickandhelpusdeliverwhat

I consider to be an industry leading customer

experienceforourpassengers.

My rst personal interaction with London

City Airport was just six years ago when I

tooka ightto Glasgow.LCYwas abusy ter-

minal but I was struck by the no fuss approach

to transferring me through check-in, security

and boarding the aircraft. No fuss to me as a

passenger,butobviouslybasedonattentionto

detail by the airport. I have travelled through

LCY a number of times since then, always on

businessandeverytimetheairportisbusy.Ilook

forward to my much closer relationship with

the airport as we continue our growth plans

basedonasignicantinvestmentinnewassets

but maintaining attention to the needs of those

usingtheairport.

As you’ll read in this book, it has not always

been easy for LCY – an airport in the Dock-

lands was a bold and pioneering concept, and it

hashadtoghtforitsexistenceanditsmarket

share.Iwouldliketousethisforewordtosaya

personal thank you to Mowlem Construction,

underthesteerageofSirPhilipBeck,andprevious

Chairmen, including Roy Grifns, who readied

the ground for growth and the dynamic business

youseeandusetoday.

Thosechallengeshavebeenbalancedinequal

measure with opportunities, so much so that

since the previous milestone of the 20th anni-

versaryin2007,thenumberofpassengersusing

the airport has almost doubled, most recently to

justover4.5millionin2016.

Looking to the future, what I see now for

LCY is potential; signicant potential for the

airport, and across the whole of East London,

which is experiencing incredible regeneration.

In the coming decade East London will be at the

centre of London’s growth, its new homes, its

newjobs,itsnewresidents.Andthankstoour

City Airport Development Programme, LCY

will play a key role in supporting that growth,

attracting investment and connecting London

businesses globally.As it once served Canary

Wharf, I see the LCY of the future continuing to

connect our traditional business hubs, but also

emerging ones in Stratford, Barking, Greenwich,

Bexleyandbeyond.

And as we grow, we’ll do so responsibly, con-

tinuouslyinnovatingsowebalancetheimpactof

ouroperationswiththebenetsofemployment

andeconomicgrowth.Wewillcontinuetoinvest

in our communities so the people and school

childrenof East London can takeadvantage of

theopportunitieswecreate.

It’s an exciting time to be part of London City

Airport. On behalf of myself, the shareholders

and management team I’d like to thank you for

yoursupportandcustom.Wenowlooktothe

future and to building an airport that not only

meetsyourexpectations,butexceedsthem.

July 2017

Sir Terry Morgan CBE

Chairman of London City Airport

Foreword • 7

8 • London City Airport Introduction • 9

2017

Canadian-led consortium owners

Newham Council

Runway length 1199m

AirbusA318(largestaircraft)

Embraer E Series (main aircraft)

Bombardier CS

BBC EastEnders map shows London City

Theresa May

Chris Grayling

RobSinclair–AirportCEO

18 airline operators

50 destinations from London City Airport

Maximum45runwaymovementsperhour

Policemen with guns

App

Docklands Light Railway

Oystercard

Body security scanner

LondonCitytoParisOrly

Greater London Authority from 2000

SadiqKhan–MayorofLondon

Onepoundcoin

European red biometric passport

Wi-

Shop till you drop at London City Airport

Smartphone

Electronicightbagforpilots

Drone

GPS

iPad

Lowvoltagechargers

Kindle

Smart screens

34.3millioncarsinBritain

United Kingdom population 66 million

Now and Then

30 Years of Travel and London City Airport

1987

JohnMowlem&Co

LondonDocklandsDevelopmentCorporation

Runway length 762m

Dornier 228 (smallest)

BAe 146 (ready to come in)

Dash 7

BBC EastEnders map (London City was refused)

Margaret Thatcher

Paul Channon (both Secretary of State for Transport)

JohnDouthwaite–AirportDirector

Two scheduled airlines

Three destinations from London City Airport

15runwaymovementsperhour

George Dixon style bobbie

Ticket coupon

North London Line

Bus ticket

Ticket inspection

London City to Paris Charles de Gaulle

Greater London Council (GLC) disbanded 1986

No London leader with the axing of the GLC

Onepoundnote

British printed blue passport

Fax

Single coffee shop at London City Airport

Telephone kiosk

Flight manual

Helicopter photo ship

Find your position on a map or use a compass

Notepad

Three (and two) pin plugs

Books(butwestilldohavethem)

Noticeboards

20.5millioncarsinBritain

United Kingdom population 57 million

March 1982. London

was its usual self. Wet,

dullandmiserable.Iwas

in my then City ofce.

I had resigned from

Lotus Cars and my rst

clients as a public relations

practitioner were Colin

Chapman’s Moonraker boat company, CSE-The

OxfordAirTrainingSchoolandPlymouth-based

BrymonAirways.

Thephonerang.ItwasBillBryce,theenigmatic

owner and Managing Director of Brymon. At

that time BC (our two letter airline code) was

an up and coming British regional carrier and

hadjusttakendeliveryoftherstUK-registered

50-seatdeHavillandCanadaDash7shorttake-

offandlandingaircraft.BillandIhadbothown

on the aircraft at the Farnborough Air Show in

1978andwereimpressed.SubsequentlyBrymon

operated a Plymouth to Heathrow service, as

well as basing a pair of aircraft at Aberdeen in

supportoftheoffshoreoilactivities.

‘Be a good fellow and pop down to Heron

Quays and see if we can land an aircraft there,’

Billsaid inhisNewZealanddrawl. HeronQuays

I thought to myself.That’s south ofWhitechapel.

Docklands. Or dying Docklands by then. ‘Some

crazy guy has called me to say the Dash 7 might

beabletogetdownonadisuseddock,’hesaid.It

seemedthatPhilipBeck,aprivatepilot,hadnoticed

in Flight International magazine a report of the

aircraft’sastonishingshorteldperformance.

What I saw was around 1,000 yards of

abandoned quay, freeofobstacles at each end.

Asaformerprivatepilotmyselfitseemedtome

that the Dash 7 might safely make a landing but it

was up to the professionals to take a proper look

andfortheCivilAviationAuthoritytoapprove

aight.Ialsodrovetotheproposedsiteofan

airportinthederelictKingGeorgeVDockand

visualisedwhatmighthappen.Butitdidseema

longwayfromtheCityofLondon.

This book will take you through the history

of what is now London City Airport and still the

only active purpose-built UK airport built since

WorldWarII.Noonepersonoreventcantake

theplauditsforitsundoubtedsuccess.Politicians

nearly wrecked it but those with vision and

enterprise stood by the project in its darkest

days. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) has

arrivedandhopefullytheElizabethLine(Crossrail)

forthefuture.Some4.5millionpassengersused

the airport in 2016 and it is part of the new

city that is CanaryWharf and the Isle of Dogs.

ExCeL, London’s leading exhibition centre, sits

adjoiningthesite,60destinationsareservedand

New York, Moscow and the Gulf states are now

withinthescopeofnon-stopscheduledights.

Do take a look at Heron Quays next time

youare at CanaryWharf.There is a plaque at

ground level as you enter the DLR station to

commemorate the test landing on 29

June1982.

Thingshavechangedsomewhatsincethen!

Created by Margaret Thatcher’s incoming

Conservative Government, the London Dock-

lands Development Corporation (LDDC) had

been tasked with rejuvenating a part of East

Londonthatappearedtohavenofuture.Under

the energetic leadership of Reg Ward, the LDDC

tookoveran8.5-squaremileareaofEastLondon,

nominally called ‘The Docklands’, including parts

ofNewham,TowerHamletsandSouthwark.The

task to turn it into a 21st century mini-city.

London City Airport is a lasting tribute to Reg

Wardandhisinnovativeteam.

Malcolm Ginsberg

London

July 2017

Introduction

10 • London City Airport Introduction • 11

Prince Philip and

London City Airport

FromthetimeofitsrstlandinginJuly1988the

British Aerospace (BAe) 146, and its successor

the Avro RJ, have provided the backbone of

aircraftoperationsatLCY.CityJetexpectstouse

the four-engined aircraft, with a capacity of up to

112passengers,intothenextdecade.

A one-time pilot Prince Philip, a keen

supporter of LCY and the 146, is seen here in

the BAe Hateld simulator before being put

throughhispaces.

As part of preparations for the 2017

anniversary, a special pamphlet from the

tenth anniversary of the airport in 1997 was

rediscovered which demonstrated that the

airporthadroyalapproval.

In a foreword Prince Philip, wrote:

‘The Queen opened London City Airport

10 years ago and I can only imagine that the

developers must have held their breath as

they waited to see whether this somewhat

unconventionalairportwasgoingtobeasuccess.

I think it was a brilliant idea, but then I found it

tobewonderfullyconvenient.Ioncemadeitin

19minutesfromBuckinghamPalace.’

Recently Buckingham Palace was able to

conrmtotheauthorofthisbook‘Thathe[His

Royal Highness] was in the cockpit for a number

ofightsinto,andoutof,LondonCityAirport’,

his Private Secretary noting that ‘This letter

comeswithPrincePhilip’sbestwishes.’

Above: Often seen for training purpose in the early days, on short nals at LCY, a No 32 (Royal) Squadron BAe 146.

Below: Ready to collect Princess Diana, a No 32 (Royal) Squadron BAe 146.

12 • London City Airport

Chapter One

Reflections on

London City Airport

THE AIRPORT

DIRECTORS

(ChiefExecutiveOfcers)

• 13

JohnDouthwaite(left).

1986–1988.Withsomeof

therstpassengers.

Bill Lindsell (left).1988–1990.SeenherewiththeDukeofKent.

BillCharnock.1990–1995

JohnHorne.1995–1996 RichardGooding,OBE.1996–2012 DeclanCollier.2012–2017

Reections on London City Airport • 1514 • London City Airport

Declan Collier

The selection of Declan Collier

as Chief Executive of London

City Airport in March 2012,

following the retirement of

Richard Gooding after 15 years,

was seen by both the City and

the air travel industry as a

determination by the airport

owner to make an appointment

of real standing in the international airport forum.

Previously Chief Executive of the State-owned Dublin

Airport Authority since 2005, and prior to that with

ExxonMobil, Declan is Chair of the World Board

of Airport Council International (ACI), the airport

equivalent body of IATA, and formerly Chair of ACI

Europe. He holds a Masters degree from Trinity

College Dublin.

Declan announced his decision to stand down in

April 2017, his post taken by Robert Sinclair from

Bristol Airport who joins London City exactly 30 years

after Queen Elizabeth ofcially opened the terminal.

Here he reects on his ve years in charge whilst

Robert Sinclair considers the challenges ahead as the

airport moves towards a new era.

‘InoneofmyrstinterviewsasCEOofLondon

City Airport a journalist from the Daily Telegraph

speculated that LCY would feel like an oasis

ofcalm aftertheDAA.Well, Icanhappilysay

it has been anything but, instead it has been a

time characterised by growth, by change and by

signicantachievement.

In early 2012 we were a business of around

1,400 staff, eight airlines and around three million

passengers.Wewereabusinessthatwasrightly

proudofthefast,efcientserviceitprovided,

in particular for the dynamic businesses of the

CityandCanaryWharf.Butwewantedtodo

moreandwehadthatpotential.

The CityAirport Development Programme

(CADP)wasavisionforourfutureairport;an

airport that could meet demand, welcome the

next generation of aircraft, connect to new

globaldestinationsandnotonlyserveLondon’s

nancial,businessandgovernmentdistricts,but

beacatalystfortheregenerationofEastLondon.

This was an ambitious programme, and one

that we undertook at the most challenging period

inUKaviation.Despitehavingacompellingcase,

thereweresetbacks,signicantones,whichat

timesledmetoquestionwhetherCADPwas

deliverable.

But, what inspired me was how steadfast

and committed our whole business was to

overcomingtheobstaclesthathadbeenplaced

in front of us. We knew we had a winning

case, and despite the headwinds of exiting

the European Union and a change in political

leadership,inJuly2016,CADPwasconsented

bytheUKGovernment.

We were vindicated, but moreimportantly,

it allowed us to plan for the future; a future in

which we would create another 2,000 new jobs,

addmuchneededcapacitytotheUKaviation

system and generate £1.3 billion for the UK

economyeachyear.

Change is part and parcel of any business

and LCY has had two owners in my time at the

airport.While sales processes are never easy,

whathasstruckmewasthebeliefourrespective

ownershaveintheairport,theirwillingnessto

investandtheircertaintyinourpotential.

“Faster,BetterJourneys”isourvision.Itisa

propositionthatIbelievesetsusapartfromall

otherUKandEUairportsandweinvestheavily

toprovidethebestpassengerexperience.

I would take up the rest of the book if I were

tolistallthatwehave done in this time, but

instead let me characterise how we embraced

changeandinnovationandbuiltanairportwith

ourcustomersatitsheart.

If you walked down our West Pier two years ago

you would be reminded of the days of 50-seater

aircraftserving the airport, so weinvested £24

million in an upgrade programme to handle 100-

seat+ aircraft, adding more seats, more space and

newconcessionsforourcustomers.

Alongside this we have constantly looked at

ways of not only maintaining our ‘20/15’ passenger

proposition.  It takes just 20 minutes from

disembarkingtheDLRtogettingtoyourgate.And

onarrivalsitis15minutesfromlandingtoarriving

attheDLR.Asweareasmall,agilecompanywe

have been able to workwith emerging London

and UK tech companies like CrowdVision and

Autonomawhohaveallowedustomeasuretrain-

to-gate real time passenger ows and embrace

Articial Intelligence solutions in the aircraft

turnaroundprocess.Passengerinsightallowsusto

make dynamic, informed decisions that in an LCY

context, means an ever quicker, better airport

experience.

And, most recently, we were able to announce

aUKrst,aDigitalRemoteControlTower.This

again demonstrated that LCY was resolutely

cutting edge and the Tower, once complete in

2019, will create a more reliable and resilient

service that by embracing new technology, will

make LCY even more efcient and directly

benetourpassengers.

As I look at the business now, we are an

airport that is building from a position of

strength.Anddon’ttakejustmywordforit,look

at the litany of awards and recognition the team

hasreceived,fromthebestairportintheworld

undervemillionpassengersin2017bySkytrax,

togainingstage3CarbonAccreditationStatus

from ACI Europe, to winning the inaugural UK

All Party Corporate Social Responsible Business

oftheyearaward.

What these successes say to me is that we

areanairportthatisreadyforthefuture.Weare

an airport about to embark on a £370 million

developmentprogramme,anairportthatispoised

to double its workforce to 4,500 by the mid-2020s

and an airport that is ready to welcome more

airlinesandthenewest,mostinnovativeaircraft.

We are also an airport that, just as when

weopenedon5November1987,issteadfastly

committed to investing in, and creating

opportunities for, our local community.This is

an East London business and it will continue

to create jobs for its residents, invest in their

education and continue to be an industry leader

innoiseandenvironmentalmitigation.

There is much to look forward to. London

City Airport, the only London airport actually in

London,issettoservethecapitalforafurther30

years,andbeyond.’

Robert Sinclair comes to London City Airport as Chief

Executive Ofcer after a similar position at Bristol

Airport since 2008. During his time Bristol Airport

has seen record growth in passenger numbers and

protability and the successful delivery of a £160

million development programme.

A native of New Zealand, Mr Sinclair is a qualied

chartered accountant and solicitor. Prior to taking on

the role at Bristol he was the Chief Financial Ofcer

of Auckland International Airport following a ten-year

career with UBS in investment banking.

‘I am delighted to be taking on the role of Chief

ExecutiveOfcerofLCYontheoccasionofits

30thanniversaryandatsuchanexcitingtimefor

theairport.

I would like to pay tribute to Declan and the

whole team for all their hard work in getting LCY

to where it is today – an award-winning, incredibly

popularairportrightintheheartofLondon.We

haveavery ambitiousdevelopmentprogramme

aheadofus–aplantoincreasecapacityto6.5

million passengers per year and 111,000 ight

movements, much needed capacity when the

rest of the London airport market is highly

constrained and congested, and at a time when

the City of London and the UK must protect and

growinternationalconnectivity.

While expanding the airport’s capacity, we

willcontinuetodeliveranoutstandingcustomer

experience both on departure and arrival, and

infuse our airport with a real sense of place,

recognising our very distinctive East London

heritage and location. It’s going to be a huge

challenge,butonethatIamveryexcitedabout.’

And a few words from

Robert Sinclair

Reections on London City Airport • 1716 • London City Airport

It was back in 1966 Tom Appleton joined the then

de Havilland Canada (DHC), now Bombardier,

becoming a senior development pilot famously

demonstrating the Dash 7’s remarkable runway

performance at Farnborough 1978. He served as

Vice-President of Customer Support of Bombardier

Amphibious and later VP for the sale of its products

around the world. As CEO of Piaggio Aero Industries

SpA he was much involved with the development

of the Avanti turboprop. He is a Director of Conair

Group Inc, the British Columbia company specialising

in airborne reghting. Tom Appleton is Chairman of

the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.

In many ways without Tom Appleton’s guidance

Brymon Airways would not have survived serious

nancial problems. He reects on the past and looks

at the future.

‘Bill Bryce was a regular visitor to the de

HavillandplantatToronto(Canada)duringthe

lateseventiespurchasingoneaftertheother

of ourTwin Otter utility aircraftto be used

mainly on routes out of Plymouth. Like all

our guests he was impressed with the Dash 7

whenheewonitatFarnboroughandwhen

the opportunity to purchase the aircraft came

about shortly afterwards he quickly put a

packagetogether.

Perhaps too quick. In truth Brymon was in

noshapetotakeontheinvestmentrequiredof

suchadaringventure,bothanewveryadvanced

aircraft,andwhatwaseffectivelyanewairport.

Having purchased Dash 7s with nancing

in Dollars, the airline was soon faced with

a recession and the collapse of the Pound.

Repayment of its debt was impossible and in

1983deHavillandCanada,asthelargestcreditor,

calledintheauditorsPeatMarwicktodevisea

strategy.

DHC’s anxieties about the likely collapse of

Brymonweretwofold.Firstwasacommitment

to our good customers Chevron and Shell,

worldwide operators of DHC aircraft supporting

their exploration programmes, who relied on

Brymon Dash 7s to transport their North Sea

employees from Aberdeen to the Unst Heliport,

intheShetlandIsles.

DHC’s second concern was the embryonic,

but much longer term opportunity presented at

LondonDocklands.

As one of the test pilots involved in the

original development of the Dash 7, including

participation with the British contribution to the

certication standards created for short take-

offand landing(STOL)operationsofthe Dash

7, with its 7.5-degree approachslope approval,

I had maintained close contact with Brymon as it

expandeditsregionalservices.

When the company’s problems surfaced,

DHC President John Sandford dispatched me

overnighttoLondonwithinstructionsto“sort

it out”.With our advisors, we worked out a

plan to hold off on bankruptcy proceedings and

keep Brymon aoat on its cash ow to await

better business conditions, if the regulator could

be convinced to approve it.The CivilAviation

Authority was receptive to our proposal and

allowed DHC temporary dispensation to own

and operate the UK-based airline for a limited

period,tosave400jobsinPlymouthandperhaps

seetheDocklandsdevelopmentforward.

We immediately purchased the Brymon assets

from Bill Bryce (for just £100,000, if I remember

correctly) the night before bankruptcy would

havebeenunavoidable.

The rst task was to nd a professional

manager to run the airline, so DHC Chairman

“Barney”Danson,theformerCanadianDefence

Minister, arranged a meeting with Margaret

Thatcher’s “favourite businessman”, ICI and

BritishAirways’ChairmanSirJohn(laterLord)

King,inhisofcesintheCity.

WhenaskedifhecouldrecommendaCEO

to head up Brymon, Sir John responded from

behindhismassivedeskinacloudofsmokefrom

his Churchillian cigar: “You could do worse than

to read this morning’s Financial Times.”

BA had just red in spectacular fashion,

noted as “the night of the long knives”,

severalredundantexecutivesfromtheBOAC/

BEA merger that produced British Airways!

Amongst those names, although he had

resigned BA earlier in frustration, was Charles

Stuart, a former BEA executive who had

headed up the regional operations, including

Northeast Airways based in Newcastle. We

quickly formed a new board with myself as

Managing Shareholder, a way of satisfying

the British Government regarding overseas

ownership at the time. Over the next three

yearsCharlesandI,withthesamevisionfor

Brymon,neverhadadisagreementthatwasn’t

resolved privately and quickly!The Canadian

ownershipwassomethingthatwasneveraired

inpublic.

As Mowlem and the London Docklands

DevelopmentCorporationpressedonwiththe

development in the docks Brymon built up a

networkofservicesacrossthe UKand onmy

visits to Plymouth I could transfer with some

satisfactionintoTerminalOneandtheserviceto

DevonandCornwall.

At the very end of 1985 we entered

negotiations with Sir Colin (later Lord) Marshall,

ChiefExecutiveofBritishAirways,thatresulted

in DHC’s divestiture of the company to BA

and the Brymon management. The Brymon

investment cost BritishAirways just £500,000

foracompanythatincludeduptovepairsof

theHeathrowslots!

The Docklands airport was by now well on

itswayandinterestfromotherairlinesinevitably

followed when Sir Michael (also later raised to

the Lords) Bishop in 1987 established London

City Airways with new Dash 7s bought directly

fromDHC.

It can be argued that without the Dash 7 there

wouldbenoLondonCityAirport.

Today the Dash 7’s successor, the twin-

enginedBombardierQ400isamainstayofthe

airport and for the future the Bombardier C

Series will open up new non-stop routes thought

impossible30yearsago.Ihopeinthefutureto

be able to plan a trip from New York to London

City Airport, with an inspection, and then on to

MoscoworperhapsDoha.’

Tom Appleton

Toronto

July 2017

Tom Appleton

Reections on London City Airport • 1918 • London City Airport

‘When I became Chairman of John Mowlem

and Company in 1979, I was very aware that a

major area of work for Mowlem – based on our

maintenance contract for the Port of London

Authority (PLA) – was in steep decline largely

becauseofcontainerisationintheshippingindustry.

It was in that context that I met the newly

appointed Chief Executive of the London

Docklands Development Corporation, Reg

Ward, forlunch atarestaurantcalled L’Opera

nearCoventGarden.

At the end of this lunch, talking mainly about

the inner docks, St Katherine and Canary Wharf,

I asked Reg what his thoughts were for the most

easterlyoftheDocks,TheRoyalDocks.

Reg replied that he saw the Royal Docks

as a Transport Interchange and Hub, because

they were well equipped with existing rail

tracks and were close to the North and South

Circular Roads, together with the then proposed

construction of another Thames road crossing at

Beckton.

My immediate thought, which I expressed to

Reg was that in 1980 a full-function transport

interchange had to include an airport. He,

straight away, got the point and said he knew

exactly where it could and should go. On the

longpeninsulabetweentheKingGeorgeVDock

and the RoyalAlbert Dock.And that is where

LondonCityAirportistoday.

From that small beginning it took almost a

decade to get to the opening of LCY in 1987,

through planning, negotiation with the PLA, the

publicplanningenquiry,andthenitsconstruction.

We were very pleased to welcome HM The

Queentoopentheairport.

At rst growth was slow, but gradually

passengernumbersincreased.Thecondencein

ourLCY investment bymythencolleagues on

Mowlem’s board mostly relied on the experts

we had employed to tell us how many passengers

wecouldexpecttouseLCY.

I had always thought that an airport close to

the City would be a part of the natural monopoly

comprising the London airport system, and so in

themediumtermwouldinevitablyprosper.

We had long sought a partner in this airport

project, and the then nationalised owner of all

theotherLondonairportswaskeentoinvest,

but the Department of Transport forbade

it to do so. So, after I retired from Mowlem’s

chairmanship in 1996, the new Chairman and

Board decided to sell the airport and was only

able to realise a truly pathetic price from the

morefarsightedDermotDesmond.Tobefair,

Mowlem’ssharepricereactedfavourablytothe

newsofthesale.

Howeveradecadefurther on,thewhole of

Mowlem was sold for £350 million and LCY

aloneinthesameyearforover£700million.

I am proud to have been one of the main

instigators of London City Airport, but of course

there were others, even just within Mowlem,

who played a greater part in its becoming the

success it is today, such as Roger Sainsbury, Bill

LindsellandBillCharnock.

Whowouldhavethoughtin1988,whenwe

carried just 133,000 passengers, that this year

thatgurewouldreachtowardsvemillion.’

Sir Philip Beck

London

July 2017

‘My abiding memories of London City Airport

have their origin in 1988 when I chartered

a Dornier 228 to do “a proving ight” into,

what had been drawn to my attention by the

Chairman of the plc to whom I had recently sold

mynancialbusiness,as‘thatlittleairstripdown

thedocks’.

On reflection, we concluded it might be

besttofile the proving flightaway andthat

maybe it would best be revisited when the

runway was lengthened to take jets. Fast

forward to Autumn 1992, and the airport

came back on the horizon but this time in the

context of a plan for an airline with LCY as

thepivotalfocusof thebusiness.Workwas

well underway on building a tunnel which

would facilitate improved road access from

theCity.Butmymaininterestatthetimewas

looking across the river from theTerminal

building at the DLR Silvertown station and

wondering what would it take to bring that

link to the airport and by when?

Movethedialagainto10January1994and,in

thecompanyofRichardBranson,Iamhavingmy

phototakenaswelaunchedtheinauguralCityJet

scheduled service to Dublin from LCY. Mr

Branson was present because we agreed to rent

his brand on the tail to secure us early traction

asastart-upfromarelativelyequallyunknown

littleairportwitha“downtown”postaladdress.

As Murphy’s Law tends to work, that launch

day coincided with the Rotherhide Tunnel being

closedduetourgentrepairsbeingrequiredand

theMotherofalltrafcjamsensued.Unknown

to any of us, a number of Irish newspapers

had set up their own private“air race” with

journalists timing their access to the West End,

utilising all ve London airports, including of

course LCY.The headlines the next day were

not kind to us as we came in ‘Paddy Last’ in the

‘GreatAirRace’.

But being Irish we are familiar with reruns

(TheresaMaypleasetakenote!)soweconvinced

the Irish national radio station, RTE, to organise

another GreatAir Race a week later. On this

occasion wewon it bytheproverbial‘country

mile’ – breaking the winning tape by a full hour

overthenextplacedairport.

The rest, as they say is history; but what a

history–oneofdeliveringmillionsofpassengers

throughthisuniquegatewayintoLondon.Thatis

therealstory.

Over the subsequent 24 years, CityJet has

continued to operate services out of LCY to

European cities and the airline has played a major

partinplacingthisairportrmlytotheforefront

as the London airport of choice for not just the

businesstravellerbutalsothediscerningleisure

passengers who place sufcient value on their

time and their physical wellbeing to avoid the

scrum of other London airports and the endless

trekfromplanetoCity.

Ofcourse,oversuchalongperiodofactivity

at LCY we have experienced many challenges

whentheweatherhasnotalwaysfacilitatedtravel

and the restricted opening hours (in compliance

with the very demanding local environmental

sensitivities) have conspired to deny us access

toour“aircraftcarrier”intheThames Estuary

on a limited number of occasions. However,

ourregularpassengershaveremainedsteadfast

through the good times and the sometimes

challenging times because they know that LCY

still represents the easiest point of access to

Londonbyfar.’

Pat Byrne

Dublin

July 2017

Sir Philip Beck

Pat Byrne

Reections on London City Airport • 2120 • London City Airport

‘InJune1995,IwasapproachedbyCityJetChief

ExecutivePatByrne. He was seekingtoopena

new Dublin – Brussels route. I had no interest

ininvestinginanembryonicairlineduetotheir

high rate of failures, but I told Pat that if it were

possibleIwouldhappilyinvestinanairport.

I was a believer in airports as an investment

class from my years as Chairman of the Irish

AirportsAuthority(AerRianta).EquallyIbelieved

inthefutureofLondonDocklandsandtheever-

growingdemandforairtransport.

Pat told me that he felt Mowlem Plc was

considering a sale of London City Airport and

offeredtosetupameetingwithMowlem’sCEO

JohnMarshall.ImetwithMrMarshallaweeklater

and we agreed, subject to the usual conditions, a

dealtobuytheairportfor£30million.

Following a period of due diligence, led by

ArthurAndersenwhoadvisedagainstpurchasing

the airport, a revised deal was agreed with

MowleminSeptember1995.At the time, there

were only three airlines operating from London

Cityandthefuturefortwooftheselookedbleak.

Happily, CityJet continues to y through the

airporttothisday.

Equally,theonlypassengerjetcertiedtoland

atLondonCitywastheBAe146.Butagainthere

was uncertainty over its future.  Fokker had a

jet going through trials, the Fokker 70, but with

hindsight,Fokkerhadnotmuchofafutureeither.

Against this background, the deal closed on 28

October1995.

Bill Charnock, who had passed retirement

age, agreed to extend his stay for a year to

enable me to recruit a new Chief Executive. I

identied Richard Gooding, who was running

LutonAirport,andbetweenRichardandDavid

Thompson, the Finance Director, I had the

nucleusofamanagementteam.RayMacSharry

agreed to come on board as the Chairman and

my colleague Michael Walsh from International

Investment and Underwriting also joined the

BoardofDirectors.

Shortly after buying the airport I met with the

Reichman Brothers, British Aerospace and the

London Docklands Development Corporation

(LDDC)–allpivotalplayers

in the future of the airport

and Canary Wharf and

all were very supportive.

We were extraordinarily

fortunate in our timing.

The airport generated cash

from the day the purchase

was completed and, despite

the bombings in Canary Wharf, London City and

thesurroundingareahavedevelopedinparallel.

In2002weopenedtheJetCentretocaterfor

theincreaseinprivateaviationandIwaspleased

tobeoneoftheirmostfrequentcustomers!

In2006,Ireceivedanunsolicitedapproachto

buy London City Airport at a valuation which

appeared attractive. I decided that we should

exploreitstruevalueinconjunctionwithGavin

McDonaldandColmDonlonofMorganStanley.

Theyachievedaprice25%abovetheunsolicited

offerandIwashappytoaccept.Toputtheworth

in perspective, they realiseda value forLondon

CityAirportwhichequatedtoa50%interestin

Gatwick, an airport with circa ten times more

passengers.

Where do we go from here?

At all stages, my experience with London City

hasbeenpositiveandIamdelightedthatthenew

ownershavedevelopedtheairporttowhereitis

today, under the leadership of another Irishman,

andhasalsomanagedtoachieveanancialsuccess

fortheinvestors.

I was delighted to see that within days of his

appointment, the Chancellor of the Exchequer

Philip Hammond was able to visit London City

Airportandgivethego-aheadforitsexpansion.

Whenwetookovertheairport15movements

an hour were considered the maximum for the

runway. Forthe future45 movementsperhour

will be the maximum with no holding on the stand

whileanotheraircraftlands.Theparalleltaxiway

will be a real boon for the airport not just for

scheduledoperationsbutexecutivejetsaswell.’

Dermot Desmond

Dublin

July 2017

Chairman of London City Airport Ltd for ten years to

2017, Roy Grifns completed a long governmental

career mainly in the Department for Transport as

Director-General of Civil Aviation 1999–2004. He

was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in

the 2003 New Year’s Honours list.

‘Back in 2009 when a national newspaper

described London City Airport as ‘bijou and

startlingly well run’, I felt a certain pride because

less than three years before I had been brought

in by the airport’s then brand new owners to

chairtheBoard.

Actually, my personal connection with London

City had started 20 years earlier, when, in 1987, I

wasprivatesecretaryandbag-carriertothethen

Secretary of State for Transport as he (and I)

accompaniedHMTheQueenwhensheopened

London City Airport and then we all returned

toWestminsterPierintheroyalmotorlaunch.

I remember Her Majesty, characteristically

well-briefed, in animated aviation-oriented

conversation with myMinisterial charge as we

chuggedbackup theThames. London Cityhas

comealongwaysincethen.

I also remember the arguments in the late

eightiesamongstseniortransportofcialsabout

letting the presence of this interloper from the

aviationsectorinterferewithgrandplansfora

series of road bridges across the docks and the

river.An ambitious Highways Deputy-Secretary

and his staff really resented being thwarted by

the ‘Biggles’ team. Then there followed quite

a struggle to move on from the Dash 7 to

allow other aircraft types, and then jets(!) to

useLondonCity.Butithappened,becausethe

original concept of putting an airport where

LondonCityiswassound.

In September 2001, when New York’s twin

towers were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks and

ightssuspendedacrossthenorthAtlantic,Iwas

theDirectorofAviationwhosignedtheOrder

closingUKairspace.Iwellrememberhavingto

‘explain’ with some force to London City’s Chief

Executiveofthetimewhythebanhadtostaya

bitlongerthanhebelievedwasreasonable.

By then, Mowlem

had gone, and

Dermot Desmond

owned the airport.

When,veyearslater,

at the end of 2006, he

sold London City to

Global Infrastructure

Partners and AIG

for a sum which

most observers of

the aviation sector

thought ludicrously

high, that was the point where London City

Airport reallystarted growing up. Coming in as

Chairman, the one thing that I was clear about

was that London City needed to conduct itself

just like the much bigger European airports, across

the board – safety (of course), security, pricing,

schedules,slotallocation,airspaceuse,andmore.

Andwedidjustthat.

SowhenHMTheQueen,thistimewithPrince

Philip, came back to London City a quarter of

a century after her rst visit, to celebrate the

airport’s 25th birthday, I was more than proud

(of the place, not of myself) to accompany

Her Majesty again around a piece of aviation

infrastructure which indeed had grown to be one

ofthecountry’svitaltransportassets.

I admit to being a public transport geek, so

IalwaystraveltoandfromLondonCitybythe

DLR,tube,and/orOverground.Ilovetolisten

totravellersexpressing(pleasant)surpriseabout

theirexperiencesoftheairport.

I am tempted to bore them with my message

thatLondonCityisnotlikeotherairports.It

is simply better. It honestly does what it is

supposedtodo.Itworkswithitsneighbours,

with its customers (airlines and passengers),

with its regulators, with government (local

andnational).ItisaboontoEastLondon,the

capital,thecountry.IencourageLondonCity’s

currentownerstokeepitthatway.Iamglad

tohavehadasmallpartintheairport’srst

30years.’

Roy Grifns

London

July 2017

Dermot Desmond Roy Grifns

22 • London City Airport

A lifetime civil servant Stuart Innes was seconded

from the Department of Environment (DoE) to

help the then Chief Executive designate, Reg Ward,

establish a quasi-government organisation which then

did not have a name or an ofce or any staff! Thus

the London Docklands Development Corporation

(LDDC) was born.

He stayed with the Corporation throughout the

whole of its operational life working at different times

as the Chief Executive’s assistant, reorganising the

LDDC’s administration, social facilities, community

development, community services joint planning and

then nally in winding it all up in an orderly manner.

He left the DoE on ‘early retirement’ in May 1998

but continued his involvement with the airport as

Secretary of the London City Airport Consultative

Committee from a steering group in 1986 until

his nal withdrawal in 2015. Stuart Innes could

justiably claim he knew Reg Ward better than most.

Here he reects on Reg Ward and how perhaps

he would have viewed today’s London City Airport,

and the Docklands.

Reg Ward (1927–2011) was the son of a miner,

went to Manchester University and spent the rst part

of his career with Inland Revenue as a tax inspector.

A series of local government appointments followed,

culminating in him becoming Chief Executive of the

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and

later of Hereford and Worcester County Council.

‘It is a strange world.  In fact it was I who

interviewed Reg for the job of Chief Executive

of what was to become the London Docklands

DevelopmentCorporation(LDDC)backin1980

recommending him to my boss Michael Heseltine

forthejob.Clearlyitwasatwo-wayendorsement

asoneofhisrststepsonsettinguptheembryo

organisation was to ask me to join him. The

relationshipwastobecomeveryfatherandson

overatumultuouseightyears.“Whymovetothe

middle of nowhere when you can move to the

middleofLondon?”wasasloganheconjuredup.

His approach was to seize opportunities

wheneverandwherevertheyarose.“Youcould

say that Docklands is a ‘happening’, a happy

coincidence of opportunity and accident,” Reg

usedtosay.“Therehavebeennomasterplansor

detaileddevelopmentframeworks.”

If Reg were here today and in charge of a much

politically changed area with the local councils

backincontrolhemighttakethelifttotheOne

Canary Wharf marketing suite and take a look at

the huge layout model of East London and ask a

fewquestions.“Whatisgoingonhere,hereand

here?”Hewouldcomeupwithafewideas.

CrossrailwasconceivedafterReg’sdemiseas

the LDDC leader but he certainly watched its

development inhisretirementand wouldhave

supportedtheproposedSW/NEexpansion.Reg

wasneverabletoyfromLondonCityAirport

toNewYork,which heregretted.Hewas able

to show his support for London City Airport

when in 2005 he came up from Stroud to

unveilatabletatHeronQuaysstationentrance

commemorating Captain Harry Gee’s rst

landing all those years earlier. It was a coming

together of the Docklands Light Railway, Canary

Wharf and London City Airport, three of his

nestachievements.

RegcultivatedateamwhichIwasproudto

bepartof.’

Stuart Innes

Wakeeld

July 2017

Chapter Two

History of the

London Docklands

Reg Ward

By Stuart Innes

• 23

History of the London Docklands • 2524 • London City Airport

What we now call the London Docklands

was once known as Plaistow Marshes. West

Ham United was born by the river asThames

Ironworks Football Club. Dick Turpin ruled

the roost in the early 1700s, but he was not as

romanticasweareledtobelieve,ahorsethief

executedin1739aged33.

Today the area that we now call Docklands is

thrivingonceagainbutithashadmorethanits

fairshareofupsanddowns.On5November1987

Queen Elizabeth ofcially opened London

City Airport, the catalyst for one of the most

successful regeneration programmes of modern

times. After centuries of changes in social,

economic and political conditions London to the

east was about to see as dramatic a change as at

anytimeinits2,000yearhistory.

The name Londonium, what we now call

London, was established by the Romans in 50

AD.Aroundwhere London Bridge nowstands

wastherstpracticalcrossingpointoftheRiver

Thames to England’s then capital Colchester.

Theportwashighlyvaluedasanimportcentre

bringinginsuchluxuriesasoilandwine.

London lost its energy when the Saxons

came to power (from 410 AD), who preferred

moreprovincialmajortowns.WiththeNorman

Conquest (from 1066) and the building of the

White Tower, what we now call the Docklands

begantoestablishitself.Buttheareareallybegan

toourishinthe‘goldenage’oftheElizabethan

period (1558–1603) with the advancement of

seaborne exploration leading to trade with

previously unchartered lands such as Russia,

India,FarEastandAfrica.

However,therise,fallandeventualriseagain

oftheriversideareastotheeastoftheTower

ofLondonwasnotstraightforwardandtheCivil

War (1642–51), Great Plague (1665–66), and

Great Fire (1666) meant that the Docklands was

inastateofruinandtradefellonceagain.

By the end of the next century the Docklands

had re-established itself as a major port and

tradewasdoublingevery30years.Whatwasto

become the British Empire was being established

at ports all around the globe supported from

London.Thedockswereburstingattheseams.

The increasing trade in the area had also

brought with it piracy and a large number of

unaccounted ships entering the port without

paying their import taxes. For this reason, and

alsoto competewith Bristoland Liverpool,an

encloseddockssystemwasgraduallyintroduced.

It is this dock area which we know as the London

Docklandstoday.

The virtue of the purpose-built docks was

that loading and unloading could take place at

anytimewiththewaterlevelalwaysthesame.

Its disadvantage was that the ships had to use

lockstoarriveanddepartfromthetidalRiver

Thames and only at specied times. It was to

prove to be both its virtue and undoing.The

massivecontainershipsandcruiselinersoftoday

havefoundotherportsastheirhomebases,the

rise of Tilbury, Harwich and later Felixstowe,

the home for the cargo carriers.Today Dover,

Britain’s busiest port, and Southampton, are the

maingatewaysforsea-goingholidaypassengers.

In all, 11 docks were built between 1802 and

1921withthenalthree,theRoyalAlbertDock,

theRoyalVictoriaDockandtheKingGeorgeV

DockknownastheRoyalDocks.LondonCity

AirportstandsontheKingGeorgeVDock.The

Royal Docks provided berths for large vessels

that could not be accommodated further up

river,andbecameLondon’sprincipalseaoutlet

duringthersthalfofthe20thcentury.

In 1851 the Great Exhibition was held at

what is now Hyde Park, the rst everWorld’s

Fair.Anastonishingsixmillionpeoplevisitedthe

CrystalPalace,thecentrepiece(latermovedto

Sydenham,SouthLondon,itburntdownin1936).

Manycamebytherailways,mostofthemnever

previously having ventured out of their small

townorvillage.

ThetrainsalsocametoDocklands.

By the 1850s, London’s port comprised a

number of docks owned by individual private

dock companies. Housing, industry and

commercial premisesquicklysurroundedthese

riverdocks,leavinglittleroomforanyexpansion

to meet the need of technological changes with

the introduction of steam-powered ships. Low

nancial returnsled to a lack of investmentin

new facilities and, at a time of rapid advances

in what we now call technology, the Port of

London’s facilities became increasingly out-dated

and inefcient. InWapping and Limehouse the

dockswerefarfrom t forpurposealmostas

soon as they were dug, unable to cope with the

ever larger ships made possible by the age of

steam.

In contrast, the Royal Docks were at the

forefront of technology for a good many years

and enjoyed a long period of prosperity.The

VictoriaDock(receivingitsRoyalprexin1880)

with its hydraulically-powered equipment and

direct access to the railway system being an

immediatesuccess.

By 1886 there were seven enclosed dock

systems within the Port of London, the West

India, St Katherine (1805–28) with narrow

entrance channels and very limited capacity

compared with the Royals, East India (1805),

Surrey (1807), Millwall (1868), and nally the

Royal Docks (1855–1921) themselves. Down

riverTilburyopenedin1886.

Although the Port of London grew rapidly

insizeinthersthalfofthe19thcenturyand

attractedevergreaternumbersofships,through

the 1860s there were simply too many dock

facilities competing for trade, and towards the

end of the century nearly all the dock companies

wereinseriousnancialdifculty.

By 1900 the situation had deteriorated to such

an extent that the Governmentwasforced to

interveneandestablishaRoyalCommissionto

studythemanagementofthedocks.Afteryears

of hot debate, the Bill that led to the creation

of the Port of London Authority (PLA) was

introducedby DavidLloyd George (Liberal) in

April1908asoneofhisnalactsasPresidentof

The London docks at Wapping in 1808.

The 20th

Century

Stevedores at work. (Museum of London)

theBoardofTrade.Thetaskofguidingitthrough

the House of Commons fell to his successor,

Winston Churchill, at that time a Liberal too.

TheBillreceivedRoyalAssentinDecember1908.

TheCommissionidentiedpoormanagementas

thecoreproblemandin1909theGovernmentin

effect nationalised the docks (an unprecedented

stepatthistime,nearly40yearsbeforethewave

of nationalisation introduced by Attlee’s Labour

Governmentinthelate1940s).

The new PLA began an immediate programme

of modernisation, dredging a deeper channel in the

riverandconstructingtheKingGeorgeVDock.

The outbreak of World War I brought

complete confusion to the dock and shipping

industries. The Government requisitioned

materials, ships and road and rail transport as

wellasdivertinglabour.

Overall trade continued as usual although

essentials,andnotluxuries,werepredominant.In

fact, with Antwerp and Rotterdam out of use, the

portinitiallybeneted.Thewarwasconducted

mostly without air attack by either side, the

only impact being that of the German U-boat

campaignin1917.Thissuccessfullydiscouraged

shipping from using London for fear of attack

and briey interrupted trade movement. The

port experienced minimal damage during these

yearsandbytheendofthewaritwasrelatively

easy to return to its continuing development,

remaining the world’s greatest port during the

1920sand1930s.

The PLA had had an inspiring period of

reconstructionbutevents,suchastheindustry’s

paralysing General Strike of 1926 and the Wall

Street Crash, were beginning to affect Britain and

othernations.

The result was Britain failed to recover its

place as the foremost manufacturing county in

theworld.Thisinturnimpactedonseacarriage,

docksandtrade.

However the general trade of the port

ourishedwithdevelopmentcontinuing.

With the outbreak of the World War II

imminent,theGovernmentneededtoensurethe

continuationofessentialportservices.Attheir

requestaschemeforthewartimeadministration

oftheportwasdrawnupwithotherdefensive

measures being implemented during 1938–39.

A civil defence scheme, which included the

creation of a River Emergency Service, was

planned and the necessary training of key men

took place, with equipment purchased and

storedinreadiness.

With the outbreak of the war on 2 September

1939 the Royal Navy established guard ships,

batteries were manned on both banks of the

lowerriverandinthemiddleofthereachesin

the dock and, in industrial areas, barrage balloons

wereinated.

Everyonewasawarethatatsome pointthe

RiverThames would become a target. Passive

defences in the port were ready with stringent

security measures in place enforced by the PLA’s

own police at the docks and by the Thames

DivisionoftheMetropolitanPoliceintheriver.

ItwasduringNovember1939 that the rst

German bomb fell on the Thames Estuary and

throughoutthewarthisareawasheavilytargeted.

The rst signicant attack on London came,

however,on7September1940when375enemy

planesstruckattheThamesanditsdocks.For57

consecutivenightsthetidewaywasundernear

continual attack with transport, communications,

shedsandwarehousesdestroyedordamaged.

Therivercameintoitsownduringthisperiod,

being used as the main highway into London as it

wasneverdisruptedbybombdebris,cratersor

re.Aserviceoftugsandlauncheswasprovided

by the Port Emergency Committee on behalf of

theLondonPassengerTransportBoard.

During the rst attack the docks and East

London were set ablaze, 436 Londoners were

killed and another 1,600 were badly injured.

Many raids were to follow, mostly by night but

theBlitzonLondonwasultimatelyunsuccessful.

Londonliterallysoldieredon.

Attheendof1941London’sshippingtrafc

had been reducedtoaboutonequarter of its

usualvolume,withmuchofthenormalshipping

trafcdivertedtoemergencyanchoragesinthe

Clyde.By1944warsupplieswerepouringinto

the port in large quantities and both before

and after D-Day trafc owed almost without

stoppingintoandoutofdockpremises.

Marshalling for D-Day began in London on

27MayandinTilburyon28May.Neverbefore

had the Thames seen such a eet of armed

merchantmenandshipsofwar.Oneofthemost

technically signicant moments in port history

took place as a steady owof deep sea ships,

coasters, tugs, barges, oilers and landing craft

RMS Rangitiki is seen berthed at Number 29 Shed, Royal

Albert Dock, in the 1950s.

V1 rocket damage in the Royal Victoria Dock, 1944.

28 • London City Airport

Chapter Three

The London Docklands

Development Corporation

(LDDC)

joined in the estuary. On 6 Junethe eet was

readyandtheD-dayarmadasetsailwith307ships

fromLondoncarryingsome50,000servicemen,

nearly 80,000 tons of military supplies and about

9,000vehicles.

Bombing of the port still continued. The

enemy had introduced the pilotless plane and the

rocket bomb which targeted the Docklands area,

causinghighcasualtiesanddamage.

Following the war the Port was now in a worse

state than it had been since the beginning of the

century.Nearly900missiles,aswellasthousandsof

incendiary bombs, had fallen on PLA property as well

asnumerousattacksonprivateriversideproperty.

The most damaging aspect at that time was the loss

ofsome50%ofthetotalstorageaccommodation.

Wartime reconstruction of the Thames

wascompletedby1950.ThePLAnowrealised

that long-term planning was essential for

developmentoftheportandtokeepaheadof

thedemandsmadeuponitsservices.Thenature

ofthebusinesswassuchthattheserequirements

could change at any time with revolutionary

developmentsforcingdockoperatorstomodify

orcompletelyaltertheirplans.

The Port of London was approaching its best

year in 1964 when trade exceeded 61 million

tonnes and the number of enclosed docks

reacheditspeak.However,itwasashort-term

boost.

Withtheadventofthecontainersystemand

otheradvancesintechnologyLondon,asanup

river port, had no real future.The bulk cargo

shipscouldbeofoadedin36hourswithlittle

human handling. Previously it had taken three

weeks. Stevedores (dockworkers) became part

of history and the mighty new freighters were

unable to pass through the locks.The number

of workers and vessels needed in the port

decreased dramatically. One by one the docks

closed with the three Royal Docks being the last

toceasecommercialoperationin1981.Thetrade

unionsfailedtorecognisewhatwashappening.

Theywerestillbackinthe1930s.Strikeswere

notgoingtochangethemarchofprogress.

As Tilbury developed the enclosed docks

weresteadilyshutandeventuallyturnedoverto

developersalongwiththeriversidewarehouses

withmostofthemgoneby1981.TheEastIndia,

London, Surrey and St Katharine Docks closed

inthelate1960sandearly1970s.Between1980

and1983theWestIndia,MillwallandtheRoyal

Dockswerealsoshut.

Tilburywasprivatisedin1992.ThePLAexists

today but does not own any docks and plays an

entirelydifferentrole.ThePLAactsmainlyasa

managing authority for the tidal stretch of the

RiverThames,ensuringsafenavigation, and the

well-beingoftheportanditsactivities.Ithasa

numberofstatutoryduties,includingrivertrafc

control, security, navigational safety (including

buoys,beacons,bridgelightsandchannelsurveys),

conservation (dredging and maintaining certain

river banks), encouraging both commercial

andleisureusesoftheriver,andprotectingits

environment.ItisnotresponsiblefortheThames

Barrier which is managed by the Environment

Agencyinitsoodmanagementrole.

Thewholearea,coveringnearlyninesquare

miles had become derelict and after much

discussiontheLondonDocklandsDevelopment

Corporation (LDDC) was created in 1981 with

the aim of regenerating the complex and largely

water-frontedexpanseofland.

London did not know it, but was ready for

somethingspecial.ThecatalystforLondonCity

Airporthadbeenset.

Now the runway. The King George V Dock in the 1960s.

• 29

The London Docklands Development Corporation • 3130 • London City Airport

In May 1979 following ‘The winter of discontent’,

JamesCallaghan’sLabourGovernmentcollapsed,

theresultofanocondencevoteintheHouse

ofCommons.

TheConservatives,ledbyMargaretThatcher,

took over. Britain was in decline.The‘swinging

sixties’ had become the 1970s, the age of the

AustinAllegro,aforgottencar.

With the new Cabinet Michael Heseltine was

appointedSecretaryofStatefortheEnvironment,

fully understanding the needs of a country ready

forrejuvenation.

With his publishing background he was not a

typicalcareerpolitician.Carryingaowingmane

he somehow symbolised ‘action man’ when it

cametonewspaperheadlines.

The revitalisation of Liverpool is a shining

example of Heseltine’s efforts, but his decision

to create the London Docklands Development

Corporation(LDDC)isnotsowellknown.Mr

Heseltine, as he was then, saw the task not only

to create jobs but to regenerate the land, turning

decaying ‘brown eld sites’ into prosperous

developments.

He described what he saw in his book Life in

the Jungle, a minor classic in its time taking in the

eventsashecameintopower.

‘I had found myself in a small plane, heading in

thatdirectionbywayoftheLondon’sEastEnd.My

indignation at what was happening on the South

Bank was as nothing compared to my reaction to

theimmensetractsofderelictionInowobserved.

The rotting docks – long since abandoned for

deep-water harbours downstream able to

take modern container ships – the crumbling

infrastructure that had once supported their

thriving industry and vast expanses of polluted

land left behind by modern technology and

enhancedenvironmentalism.Theplacewasatip:

6,000acresofforgottenwasteland.’

Between1978and1983over12,000jobswere

lostinthearea.Thetransportinfrastructurewas

verypoor.Theextentofderelictionwassohigh

that the cost of rebuilding was completely beyond

themeansofmostdevelopersandinvestors.

With this in mind the LDDC was established

in 1981.Appointed as Chief Executive was Reg

Ward, a one-time tax inspector but steeped

in the politics of local government, a former

Chief Executive of the London Borough of

Hammersmith and Fulham, and later of Hereford

andWorcesterCountyCouncil.

Ward’s appointment was inspired, although not

appreciatedbyeveryoneatthetime.Hefought

andbeatKenLivingstone,LeaderoftheGreater

London Council (GLC), who was opposed to the

airportandlaterhadtoeathumblepie,ofcially

opening the Docklands Light Railway (DLR)

extensionjustbeforeChristmas2005.

Onatleastoneoccasion,forexample,Ward

dodged phone calls from a secretary of state

forseveraldays,knowingthatiftheyspokeone

of his road schemes would be blocked.While

Michael Heseltine was a great admirer of his

gung-ho approach (as, apparently, was Prince

Philip),NicholasRidley,whobecameEnvironment

Secretaryin1986,waslessenthusiastic.

In itself the LDDC had very little money,

but it was given three main powers to deliver

regeneration. The rst was to acquire land –

compulsorilyifneedbe.Thismeantthatitcould

enter into commercial deals with developers.

Secondly, and controversially, it took planning

powers, but not powers of planning public

services,awayfromlocalauthorities.Thismeant,

for example, that it could react quickly with

outline planning permission, typied by Canary

Wharf.AndnallytheLDDChadthepowersand

resources to provide new or refurbish existing

infrastructure,suchastheDLR.Additionally,the

GovernmentsetupanEnterpriseZonecovering

theDocklands.

It became clear that the demand for large

industrialsitesinLondonwasnolongerrequired

– cheaper land and labour were available in

Manchester and Liverpool and other British

cities.ThereforetheLDDCbegantofocusonthe

fact that the Docklands was close to the City of

London and this made the area a good site for

secondaryofcelocation.‘Tooclose’wasthecall

fromTheSquareMileworriedthatitsdominance

ofthebankingscenewastobeeroded. In fact

the City of London was running out of space and

todaythetwocentresworkhandinhand.

IntherstyearsofitslifetheLDDCoversaw

severalofceandapartmentbuildingschemes

builtonHeronQuaysandSurreyQuaysaswell

asriversideaccommodation.Theheadquarters

was the redundant Dockmasters House and

for entertaining prospective investors a

catering barge was moored just across the

road. Its most speculator success was the

constructionofCanaryWharf,controversialat

thetime,andtohaveanextraordinaryfuture

storylineinitself.

CanaryWharf,thenameusuallygiventothe

whole complex, contains around 16,000,000

square feet of ofce and retail space, of which

around7,900,000squarefeetisownedbyCanary

WharfGroup.Somethingintheorderof100,000

plus people work in the complex today and it is

home to the world or European headquarters

ofnumerous major banks, professionalservices

rmsandmediaorganisationsincludingBarclays,

Citigroup, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, EY,

FitchRatings,HSBC,Infosys,J.P.Morgan,KPMG,

MetLife, Moody’s, Morgan Stanley, RBC, S&P

Global, Skadden, State Street, Mirror Newspaper

andThomsonReuters.

The project was conceived by Canadian

company Olympia & York, controlled by Paul

Reichmann, a refugee from Nazi Austria.

Reichmann may havemasterminded one of the

world’s great commercial developments but

preferredamodestlifestyle.

Construction began in 1988, and the rst

buildings were completed in 1991, including

One Canada Square, which became the UK’s

tallest building at the time and a symbol of the

regenerationofDocklands.Bythetimeitopened,

the London commercial property market had

collapsed,andOlympia&YorkCanaryWharfLtd

ledforbankruptcyinMay1992.

In December 1995 an international consortium,

backedbytheformerownersofOlympia&York

andotherinvestors,boughtthescheme.Thenew

company was called Canary Wharf Ltd, and later

becameCanaryWharfGroup.

InJuly2014CanaryWharfGroupwasgranted

planning permission for a major eastwards

expansion of the Canary Wharf estate including

shops, 1.9 million square feet of commercial

ofcesand3,100homeswiththerstbuildings

tobeoccupiedattheendof2018.

Canary Wharf had its problems but was not

the only project to venture into receivership,

the most spectacular being Lehman Brothers,

the tenants of 25 Bank Street, Heron Quays.

Facilitiesincludedatelevisionbroadcaststudio,

meeting rooms and a 400-seat auditorium,

massive data centre, four trading oors, 20

ofce oors, a gym and tness centre and

staffrestaurant. Lehman brotherscollapsed in

September2008.

The LDDC created a cheap rail scheme, the DLR,

runwithdriverlesstrainsandcostingonly£77million.

TheDLRarrivedin1987andtheJubileeLinein1999.

This in turn made the whole area more accessible

to the public and helped create the conditions for

further development.The derelict Custom House

area became ExCeL London which in turn led to the

developmentofhotelsandotherservicesinthearea.

Bycaritwaslessthan veminutes fromLondon

CityAirport.ItwasalsolinkedbytheNorthLondon

LinefromCustomHousestationtoSilvertownfor

London City Airport station, which closed in 2008

It came – it did – and it went

gracefully

32 • London City Airport

tomakewayforCrossrail.BythattimetheLDDC

washistory.

Duringthe1980sprivatehousingdeveloped–

atrstitwasanopportunityforthoseworking

in the area to buy property cheaply – on many

ofthedevelopmentslocalcounciltenantswere

given rst opportunities to buy at discounted

prices.Thenagaininthelater1990sLondonhad

a huge house price boom bringing the middle

classes to the area which in turn encouraged

shops,restaurantsandbars.Allinallduringthe

yearsoftheLDDCoperation£1.86billionwas

investedbythepublicsector,£7.7billionbythe

privatesector,25millionsquarefeetofindustrial

space was built along with 24,046 homes and

95,000jobs.

Withnoplanningpermissionrequiredinthe

manner we know now, speed of construction was

astonishing, almost anything could go ahead with

theresultthatthereweremanyvarieddesigns,

styles and layouts.Today the buildings look like

theyweredevelopedover a period, but in fact

wereallcompletedoveraveryshorttimescale.

Somewill disagreebut it worked.And many

of the original warehouses still stand, some

transformed into small workshops, others bars

andrestaurants.Noteverythingwaspulleddown.

Restraint was available if the LDDC thought

necessary.

Therewerevociferouscomplaintsfromthe

local community about the LDDC, arguing that

they were not satisfactorily consulted over

theDocklandsdevelopmentandthatthejobs

created from the various schemes were not

onesthatmatchedtheskillsoftheresidents.

The new populace were in fact economic

migrants drawn to what was increasingly being

seen as a revitalised area and the place to

seriously consider for ofce space.Without

thesenewpeople,theareawouldhavenever

expanded such as it did. In addition, the

amount of social housing in the area is now

much higher than had it been left for a local

boroughtodevelop.

The Canary Wharf shopping complex

comprisesof300shops,cafés,barsandrestaurants.

ThereisanEverymanCinema,slightlyup-market,

whereyoucanbeservedamealinyourarmchair

seat before the programme begins and plenty of

gardens and patio areas to sit outside and relax

onaniceday.Watersurroundsyou.Itisalively

and attractive multifunctional venue typied by

the East Wintergarden, the main hall capable of

seating500fordinner.Theplacebuzzes.

According to the Daily Telegraph: ‘Ward’s

greatest achievement was to persuade hard-

nosedCityandpropertyinvestorsthatDocklands

revival wasgoingto work.By1986,theLDDC

hadspentaround£300millionofpublicmoney,

but had succeeded in attracting £1.4 billion in

privateinvestment.’

His forthright style did not sit well with

his colleagues in central government. Ward’s

disregard for Civil Service protocol and rules

caused one colleague to remark: ‘The corns he

hassteppedonwouldllmoreshoesthaneven

ImeldaMarcospossessed.’Hewaseasedoutof

theLDDCin1988andwasnevergivenevena

minorhonourforwhathehadachieved,buthe

was certainly the Lord of the Manor of Docklands,

whichfewwoulddispute.

RegWardhadlearnttoywhendoingNational

ServicewiththeRoyalAirForce.Perhapsitwas

that experience that kindled the inspiration for

LondonCityAirport.

The LDDC was not set up as a permanent

organisation and with its task of development

by then successfully achieved it began a staged

withdrawal in 1994 and was formally wound up

on31March1998.

Chapter Four

A Short History of

Brymon Airways

The Ledger Building was for some time the headquarters

of the LDDC. It is now a Wetherspoons.

• 33

A Short History of Brymon Airways • 3534 • London City Airport

During its 25-year life Brymon Airways, based

at Plymouth City Airport, was one of the most

innovative of small British airlines. It opened

up Plymouth for scheduled air services, ew

to the most northerly airport in the British

Isles, and was the airline responsible for the

UK introductionof threede Havilland Canada

types–theTwinOtter(DH6),autility20-seater;

theDash7,ashorttake-offandlanding(STOL)

50-passengeraircraft;andthe Dash8,35seats

originally,andnowastheQ400abletocarryup

to80inits2+2cabin.

In 1981 Brymon took part in trials to consider

using a short cross runway at Heathrow, but

what brought it to national attention was ITN’s

News at Ten, Sunday 27 June 1982‘And Finally’

segment which showed a large passenger aircraft

landinginthemiddleoftheLondondocks.Peter

Sissons, the newsreader, was clearly intrigued.

Andastheysay‘Therestishistory!’

Brymon Aviation Ltd was incorporated on

26 January 1970, its name derived from its

creators’surnames,BryceandAmon.BillBryce

was a New Zealander, who had followed his

mates Chris Amon and Denny Hulme to Europe

totryandestablishthemselvesintheworldof

FormulaOne motor racing. Hulme became F1

World Champion in 1967 whilst Chris Amon

was Ferrari number one 1967–69, three seasons,

not actually winning a world championship

race.BruceMcLaren,anotherkiwi,hadasimilar

background and was the founder of the company

that bears his name which is still around today

makingsomeoftheworld’smostadvancedroad

goingcars.SadlyMcLaren himself was killed at

Goodwoodon 2June1970 aged32when the

Can-Am car he was testing crashed. Bryce

fancied himself as a racing driver but found

himself as a journalist reporting back home on

histhreemoreillustriousfriends.

ItwasasanaviationentrepreneurthatBryce

was to make his name, unconventional and

charismatic, a man for a particular time, and not

for the rules and regulations of air transport

thenortoday.

BrymonAviation initially operated a Cessna

dealership at Fairoaks and Southampton as well

as a ying school and an air taxi operation. In

1972asBrymonAirwaysitbeganyinganine-

seat Britten-Norman Islander between RAF

StMawgan,nowNewquay-CornwallAirport,and

theIslesofScilly.AnotherIslanderwasacquired

and in 1973 Bryce movedtheairline’s base to

Roborough Airport, Plymouth, then little more

thanagrasseldwithaportacabinforanofce.

Brymonquicklybuiltupanetworkofroutes

fromitsbasesatPlymouthandNewquayandin

1984introducedtherstDHCTwin Otteron

theBritishaircraftregister.Itwasabravestep.

The airline was eventually to operate eight

aircraftofthistype.

With the introduction of Gatwick, Plymouth’s

rstairlinktoLondon,thetinyCanadian-built

Twin Otters mixed in with Virgin Atlantic’s

Boeing 747s and other large aircraft. In those

daysthe‘Twotters’weresinglecrew,justapilot.

The spare seat up front was for a passenger to

use.Ifyouwerenotnervous,sittingontheight

deck on the Gatwick approach was great fun.

Downwind at low level you could see all that

wasgoingon.

A chance meeting between Bryce and British

Midland Airways boss Michael Bishop (now Lord

Glendonbrook) in September 1976 led to an

important change. A discussion between the

two men about BMA’s Heathrow service to

Newquay resulted in the sale of the complete

operation, including a Dart Herald aircraft and

routelicence,for£100,000.

Brymon had reached the big time and on a

Fridaysometimesoperatedthreereturnservices

betweenTerminal1andStMawgan.

BryceflewonthebrandnewdeHavilland

Dash 7 at Farnborough in September 1978

andwasimpressed.Hesawitastheanswerto

Plymouth Airport’s communication problems

with London.The railway service was poor,

thealternativewasa200-mileroadjourney.

With a proper concrete runway and the new

aircraft the city and Brymon could literally

take-off.

Financing such a project, and the introduction

of a technically advanced aircraft, could have

beenasteptoofarfortheairline.

Allwasnotlost.Buttheywerelucky.

TheChevronOilconsortiumwasseekingaway

ofcuttingthecostofmovingstafffromAberdeento

itsNorthSearigsintheUnsteld.Theanswerwas

Dash 7 to Unst, Britain’s most northerly airport,

and then by Bristow Sikorsky S-61N helicopters

forthenal65-milelegtotheplatform.

Bryce put in a bid, rumoured to be worked

out on the back of an envelope and, rather

typicaloftheman,winningthecrucialcontract.

25 years from start

to nish

Bill Bryce is interviewed by Thames Television at the

time of the Public Inquiry test landing at Heron Quays.

Bill Bryce (right) is seen here with fellow New

Zealander, Ferrari number one Chris Amon.

Veteran Fleet Air Arm and Korean War pilot Captain

Harry Gee led Brymon Airways’ technical team on the

development of London City Airport.

Brymon called its cabin service on the Dash 7

CITYCLASS but in fact it was economy.

A Short History of Brymon Airways • 3736 • London City Airport

Brymon Airways took on four Dash 7s, two to be

basedatAberdeen,butalsoapairatPlymouth.

Brycepersonallygotinvolvedwiththebuilding

of the runway at what at last was Plymouth City

Airport.A tractor operator became another

of his skills. Operating a converted milk oat

for baggage handling was also an occasional

occurrence.

A newterminalbuildingwaserected. Often

Bryce could be seen late in the afternoon

jumping on his motorcycle and belting off to

NewquaytocatchtheeveningHeathrowight.

Billlivedontheveryup-marketStGeorgesHill

estate, Weybridge, next door to comedian Dick

Emery.Thepairwereoftenseenattheweekend

burningupthelocallanesontheirbikes.

In1981 theDash 7sarrivedand withthese

popular aircraft the services from Plymouth

to Heathrow via Newquay and then back to

Plymouthourished.

Thelastightoftheday,thefourthrotation,

routed back from London via the Cornish

airport.Plymouthboomedandsoseeminglydid

theairport.Butitwasallsupercial.Brycehad

overreachedhimself.

By summer 1983 Brymon Airways was in

seriousnancialtrouble,yetwastheleadcarrier

for the proposed STOLPORT in the London

docks. If Brymon collapsed the whole scheme

couldbeinmortaldanger.

Mindful of the fact that with the proposed

new airport there could be more aircraft sales,

deHavillandCanadatookacontrollinginterest

in the carrier.TomAppleton, the chief Dash 7

developmentpilotandbythenaseniorexecutive,

became Chairman of Brymon Airways, albeit on a

temporarybasis.

By chance, a resident not that far from

Plymouth was Charles Stuart, a former British

Airways director, and the exact opposite of Bryce,

tall and urbane, softly spoken and very British,

unlikethesometimesbrashNewZealander.He

also knew his way around the airlines of Europe

and was media friendly. He quickly established

himself amongst the Plymouth elite sitting on

various boards and very much supporting the

cityinitsdrivetoattractbusinessinvestment.

Stuartquicklygainedthesupportofhisformer

colleague, the then Colin Marshall (later Lord)

CEOofBritishAirways,whenheaskedforahalf

million pound cash injection, possibly the best

moneyBAhaseverspent.ThepairofveBrymon

landingslotsatHeathrowthatBAwereeventually

toacquireareworthtensofmillionstoday.

On1January1986,sixseniorBrymonAirways

executives, led by CEO Charles Stuart, with

assistance from BA, and collectively known as

the Plimsoll Line Ltd, purchased the carrier from

deHavillandCanadawithBritishAirwaystaking

a40%interest.Bynowitalsoownedaverylong

leaseonPlymouthCityAirport.

Charles Stuart preached the virtues of

London City Airport during what might be called

itspregnancyandbirth.Hewasanedoctorfor

the project working well with Mowlem and the

LDDCteamunderRegWard.

Stuart’s wife Anne had been a pupil at the

CityofLondonSchoolforGirls.Shehadtakena

keeninterestintheventurewhichhadaworking

nameofSTOLPORT.Itwasduringasixthform

groupvisittowhatwasthenabuildingsitethat

the name London City Airport was suggested,

and it clicked. Mowlem to their credit agreed.

Thenewairporthadapropername.

Gloria Hunniford tried the service to Paris in the very

early days, ying to Charles de Gaulle airport and back

in the morning with plenty of time to spare for her 14:00

BBC Radio show from Broadcasting House.

Coffee and biscuits were served on the LCY waterbus

service.

Visitors inspect the Dash 7 at Heron Quays June 1983.

When Brymon Airways rst came to Heathrow from

Newquay in January 1977 it ew an ex-British Midland

Dart Herald.

38 • London City Airport

Chapter Five

London City Airways

(Eurocity Express)

In October 1992, Brymon Airways merged

with Birmingham European Airways to form

Brymon European Airways. This was bought

jointlybyBritishAirwaysandMaerskAir,in1993.

BritishAirways fully acquired BrymonAirways,

whilst Maersk Air purchased the Birmingham

EuropeanAirwayssection.CharlesStuartretired

and the new management cancelled the London

City operation citing losses. British Airways

foundmoreprotableusesfortheveBrymon

Heathrow slots, Brymon only using Gatwick for

itsLondonandairlineconnectingtrafc.Itwas

thestealofthecentury.

BA sold Plymouth City Airport to a local

propertydeveloper,SuttonHarbourHoldingsPlc,

who created a new airline, Air Southwest, at the

airport using some of the Brymon management

team. The carrier folded in 2011. Today the

airport itself lies moribund, Sutton Harbour is

keen to build houses, whilst a group called Fly

Plymouthhasseriousplansforitsreopening.

Bill Bryce returned to New Zealand and died

in2003.CharlesStuartpassedawayaged64in

1993.

Dash 7 G-BRYA of Brymon Airways getting airborne at

Plymouth City Airport.

Charles Stuart, Brymon Chief Executive, welcoming

the Queen at Plymouth City Airport.

• 39

London City Airways (Eurocity Express) • 41

Bob Schumacher, today United Airlines’

Managing Director UK and Ireland, was at

London City Airport from the beginning and

says that there was a real excitement across

the Eurocity team – assembled from British

MidlandAirways’(BMA)oldhands,ightdeck

and technical crew in the main, as the build-up

to the airport and the opening of its doors.

Later he was to join Continental Airlines at

GatwickandheadupthemovetoHeathrow

and amalgamation with United. Here he

recollectsexcitingtimesatEurocityExpress.

‘The airport brought a transport revolution

– and a local fascination to a part of London

whose connectivity with foreign shores had

beensolelylimitedtoseabornetrafc through

theLondondocks.Therewerealsoemployment

opportunitiesinwhatwas,atthetime,adeprived

partofEastLondon.Fireofcersdoubled-upas

baggage loaders and aireld operatives as the

airportbecamefullyfunctional.

LondonCityAirportwasrevolutionaryinbringing

aSTOL(shorttake-offandlanding)airportrightinto

theheartofEurope’slargestcapitalcity.Itwasequally

ahead of its day both in terms of the infrastructure –

orlackthereof,andtheredevelopmentofthelocal

area. CanaryWharf was, at that time, the eastern

edge of urban redevelopment and the immediate

vicinity was semi-derelict and unattractive. How

differenttotoday!’

Created in 1964 and headed by Michael Bishop

(now Lord Glendonbrook) British Midland

Airways (BMA and later bmi) had always been a

thorn in the side of British Airways (BA) and its

predecessors.BAitselfhadbeenfashionedasa

Stateenterprisein1974.Itwastheamalgamation

of British European Airways (BEA) and the British

OverseasAirwaysCorporation(BOAC).

WithheadquartersatthepalatialDonington

Hall near East Midlands Airport, BMA was

thought of as a Midlands airline, but in fact

Bishop, Manchester born, had been educated at

theprestigiousMillHillSchoolinNorthLondon.

Keenonaviationfromaveryyoungagehehad

joined the embryo airline from its beginnings

rising to General Manager in 1969 and Managing

Director in 1972. He was active with the

London-based d’Oyly Carte Opera Company,

which he chaired, and was a sometime resident

ofLondon’sSavoyHotel.Hehasalwaysbeena

keennon-residentLondoner.

In a strange twist of fate it was in 1977 that

Michael Bishop sold Bill Bryce of Brymon a

Handley Page Dart Herald aircraft for use on

theNewquay – Heathrowroutesignallingthat

airline’srisetoprominence.

Bishophadalwaysbeenamanofvision.He

was later to lead attempts to renegotiate the UK

– USA bilateral known as Bermuda 2, his success

being overtaken by the EU – US Open Skies

Agreement2010.

Bishop saw London City Airport as the sort

of innovation he wanted to get involved with and,

perhaps, to cross swords again with Charles Stuart,

hisadversaryatBritishAirwaysduringtheearly1980s.

Eurocity Express was incorporated in 1986

andpurchasedtwoDash7s.Itenteredintoabid

to secure a partnership with Air France, but lost

outtoStuartandBrymon.Itwastolatertake

thelastDash7everbuilt.

With Air France failing to come on board

for Eurocity Express it was always going to be

a struggle to compete in the Paris market. A

codeshare with the Belgian airline Sabena saw

greater success on the London City – Brussels

route.

In its early days London City Airport was

difculttogettobypublictransportordriving.

Noeasy drivefromtheA13 andA406(North

Circular Road) at the time then, a poor local

busservice,andwhilsttheNorthLondonLine

SilvertownStationhad‘forLondonCityAirport’

addedtoitsname,itwaslittleused.

Today the North London Line rail

infrastructure is the core of Crossrail (Elizabeth

Line) and the line itself has been transformed

intothehighlysuccessfulLondonOverground.

Whatwaspopular,butexpensivetooperate,

was a water bus service from Embankment,

stopping at nearby Blackfriars Station and

disembarking its passengers at a wharf just

upstreamfromtheThamesBarrier.Itwasthen

a ve-minute coach transfer to the airport.

Brymon promoted it actively, Eurocity Express

justtaggedalong.Itslimitationsweretheweather.

As soon as any kind of winds blew across the

Same owner, British Midland, same aircraft – Dash 7

G-BOAX – but seen on its rst Eurocity Express landing

in 1987 (below left) and now in London City Airways

livery (above).

Chapter Six

The Docklands

Light Railway

Thames services were cancelled. This kind of

river connectivity, so prevalent today, was to

someextent‘aheadofitstime’.

Operations began with the opening of

the airport with ights to Brussels and Paris.

Amsterdam was added in 1988. A summer

scheduletoJerseyandweekendadhoccharters

camealonglater.

Brymon’s decision to close the Paris route

forallegedairtrafcsafetyreasonsjustbefore

Christmas1987affectedbothairlines.Into1988

ightsusedtocomeandgowithjustahandfulof

passengers.LossesmountedquicklybutBishop

wascondentthattheairportwouldwork.

Later that year the airline was renamed as

London City Airways so as to identify more closely

withitsbase.Orderswereplacedforthreemore

deHavillandCanadaDash7s,thenalproduction

airframes of this type.The two original planes

weresoldwhenathirdaircraftarrivedbutin1988

a further Dash 7 was purchased from Maersk Air

toincreasetheeettofour.

Without the Air France contract, and no

continental gateway airline interested in a

partnership, London City Airways was doomed

to fail, closing in 1990 following sustained

nanciallosses.Theaircraftweretransferredto

theparentBritishMidlandAirways.

Bob Schumacher said: ‘The airline industry is

alwaysfullofinnovationandideas–andthiswas

oneambitiousexperimentinitstime.Itwasa

slow-burnbutnoonecandenyitssuccesstoday.

OnemightthereforearguethatBMAcapitulated

too quickly. Brymon was to follow and is also

no longer with us. But without London City

Airport would Canary Wharf be as prominent

andsuccessfulasitistoday?Wewillneverknow

theanswertothatbutIamproudtohavebeen

thereattheverybeginning!’

Michael Bishop, Chairman of Eurocity Express, LCY

Chairman Philip Beck and the Queen, on the occasion of

the terminal opening.

• 43

44 • London City Airport

With the inauguration of the LDDC times

changed. Public transport development was a

priorityifitweretosucceed.ThethenLondon

Transport (Transport for London – TfL – was a

Ken Livingstone idea from2000) wasasked to

evaluate a number of plans to develop a light

railway system connecting the Docklands to

CentralLondon.Itdidseemasensiblesolution,

with much of the permanent way still in existence

andexpensivetunnellingnotrequired.Theofcial

cost for stage one was just £77 million (£215

millionat2017prices),remarkablycheapevenby

thestandardsoftheday.

The chosen system, constructed by a

consortium called GEC Mowlem, consisted of

two routes; Stratford to Island Gardens on the

Thames, and Tower Gateway to Island Gardens,

connectingatWestIndiaQuayandthen south

through the Isle of Dogs via the developing

Canary Wharf. The Greenwich Foot Tunnel,

opened in 1902, still connects to the Cutty Sark,

acrosstheriverinitsGreenwichdrydock.

From the north bank of the Thames there are

notable views to the classical buildings of the

former Greenwich Hospital and the National

Maritime Museum, with Greenwich Park forming

a backdrop. The track was further extended

undertheThamestoGreenwichitselfandnally

Lewisham, where it connects with National

Rail, and completed in December 1999.There

are plans for a Greenwich cruise liner terminal

capable of taking ships up to 60,000 tons.At

present smaller cruise ships moor in the Thames

withtransferbytender.

The original route ran for eight miles (as

against 24 miles now), had 15 stations and 11

trains. The units were driverless, a rst for

London and controlled by a computer, with input,

whenrequired, fromaTrain Captain.The DLR,

running from both Tower Gateway and Stratford

to Island Gardens, was ofcially opened by

QueenElizabethon30July1987.

As the Docklands area developedit quickly

became apparent that the DLR had to increase

capacity.Sincethebeginningofthelinefourmain

developments and enhancements have taken

place, with plenty of further ideas originating,

Nearly two-thirds of London City Airport

passengersarriveanddepartbytheDLR,mostly

viatheCanningTownUnderground/JubileeLine

intersection, but an increasing number use

Woolwich Arsenal, on the southern side of the

RiverThames with its links to the South-East

andKent.

TheDLRwasalongtimeinitsmaking.While

the track itself is new, much of the infrastructure

isbuiltonVictorianviaductswhicharewellover

100yearsold.

During the second half of the 19th century

aproliferationofrailwaylinesdevelopedinthe

east of London mainly to support the ever-

expandingDocklands,andgivingconnectionsto

amuchwiderhinterlandtothenorth.Thepoorly

builtroadsweretheprovinceofsingleriderson

horses,orcarriagesofvaryingstandards,forboth

passengersandgoods.Thecoal-redtrainsmight

havebeensmelly,butwereamajorimprovement

onthereekingroadways.

OriginallycalledtheCommercialRailway,and

datingfrom1840,thelinewhichdevelopedinto

the London and Blackwell Railway became the

mainserviceproviderinthearea,runningfrom

the Tower of London area to North Greenwich

andalsotothesoutherntipoftheIsleofDogs.

Itnallyclosedin1966duetolackoftrafcbut

its legacy lives on.Take the DLR fromTower

Gateway to Poplar and you will see the remains

of many abandoned sidings and branch lines long

givenup.

Over the next 15 years various schemes

were suggested to resurrect the old track,

build a tramway, or even extend the London

Underground. It was recognised that a mass

people mover was a crucial requirement for

anyredevelopmentto succeedinEast London.

People had to get to and from work cheaply, and

withareliableservice.

Until the coming of the London Docklands

Development Corporation (LDDC) in 1981

there was no clear direction with both central

and local government having different ideas. A

needforatransportcarrierwasnotinquestion–

budgetary concerns being the major reason for a

lackofaction.Noschemeevergotofftheground.

In 2009 the nal DLR extension was completed to

Woolwich Arsenal.

There is a train at least every 10 minutes to Bank taking

22 minutes.

The Docklands Light Railway • 47

from as far aeld as NewYork and be at the

Olympic centre within 30 minutes of actually

touchingdown,agoldmedalachievement.

Currently trains run westbound from London

CityAirport about everytenminutesto Bank,

a major intersection with the Northern and

Central Lines, and the non-stop service to

Waterloo station. Some services go toTower

Gateway.Trains fromLondon CityAirport run

every ten minutes to Stratford International

(adjacent to Queen Elizabeth II Stadium).

JourneytimeissevenminutestoCanningTown

to interchange with the Beckton branch of the

DLRandwiththeJubileeLine;12minutestothe

Poplar interchange for the Canary Wharf and

Lewisham branch, and 22 minutes to Bank in the

CityofLondon.

Trains run eastbound every ve minutes to

WoolwichArsenal.

KeolisAmey Docklands Ltd (KAD) operates

the trains and stations and maintains much of

the network. KAD took over the franchise

from Serco Docklands Ltd in December 2014

followingacompetitivetenderingprocess.

In 2016, 117 million passengers used the DLR

with just over three million passing through

London City Airport, making it possibly the

busiest single platform station in the entire TfL

network,aremarkableachievement.

The DLR does not directly connect with the

new Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) except at Custom

HouseandtheBecktonextension.Itispossible

to link at Woolwich and Canary Wharf but a

walkisinvolved.

Year Number of

stations

Number of

passengers

(millions)

Number of

trains

Length

(miles)

1988

15 10 11 8

1998

29 28 70 14

2006

38 64 94 19

2016

45 117 149 24

mainly in respect of where to extend from Bank,

north to Kings Cross, or south to The Strand

area.Stillnodecisionshavebeenmade.

The rst set of enhancements took place

between1991and1994.Itincludedextending

the line to Bank, doubling the trains to two units,

vastlyincreasingthecapacityofCanaryWharf

station to include six platforms and integration

intothemallsandofcetowersaround,anda

routefromPoplartoCanningTown,avitalpiece

oftheEastLondonlightrailwaydevelopment.

Canning Town was the gateway to London

CityAirportwiththenextstepanextensionvia

theairporttotheDLRstationatKingGeorgeV,

oppositetheeasterlyrunwaytouchdownpoint.

Theairportstationwasbuiltwithacoveredway

straightintotheterminal.Itwashighprole.Ken

Livingstone,thethenMayorofLondon,opened

the extension in December 2005, much to

his chagrin, as he was opposed to the airport.

Indeed, the DLR connection to London City

Airportcouldhavebeenpartoftheinitialplans

for the system if it was not for his total lack of

interestor,somewouldsay,unhelpfulness.Also

attending the opening ceremony was Lord Coe,

ChairmanoftheLondonOrganisingCommittee

oftheOlympicandParalympicGames2012,and

ColinJackson,Olympicsilvermedallistandtwice

worldchampion.

At the same time a branch from Canning

Town to Beckton was inaugurated including a

station at Custom House on the North London

Line, since that time the main transport access

forExCeLLondon.

With the strong backing of the Lewisham

Borough Council the line was further extended

inJanuary2009undertheThamestoWoolwich

Arsenal connecting to National Rail and the Kent

lines.Woolwichquicklyprovedprotable.

With the build-up towards the London

Olympics,manyof the stationswereextended

andthree-cartrainsintroduced.TheDLRroute

from the airport to Stratford was a key element

of the transport infrastructure for the London

Olympics.Thebranchcostnearlytwicethatof

theoriginalscheme,£140million.

Thelastextension,fundedfromtheOlympic

2012 budget, was the line from Canning Town

to Stratford and Stratford International with

throughtrains starting atWoolwich and giving

airportpassengersdirectQueenElizabethPark

access. During the Games, the DLR carried

aroundtwicetheusualaveragenumberofdaily

passengers, with up to 500,000 people on the

busiestdays.PassengerscouldnowyintoLCY

LCY to Stratford completed well in time for the Olympics

(left to right) Transport Minister Karen Buck, Colin

Jackson, Lord Coe, Ken Livingstone, Denise Lewis.

Canary Wharf station is by far the busiest on the

network.

FLYING HIGH TOGETHER

Chapter Seven

Canary Wharf

• 49

Canary Wharf • 5150 • London City Airport

Canary Wharf, the London headquarters of

manyoftheworld’smajornancialinstitutions,

professionalrmsandbusinesses,liesontheIsle

ofDogs,evolvingfromhumbleorigins.

It became known as the Isle of Dogs when

HenryVIII’s dogs were walked on it regularly

duringhisreignatthestartofthe16thcentury.

Until the 18th century the Isle of Dogs

was mainly agricultural land on the edge of a

burgeoningmetropolis.

Canary Wharf, on the other hand, takes its

name from the Canary Islands from where

bananas were imported to the West India

Docks.CharlesDickensdescribedtheDocklands

in the 1860s as a place where ‘accumulated scum

of humanity seemed to be washed from higher

grounds,likesomuchmoralsewage’.Untilthe

1960s, the Isle of Dogs was, however, a hive

of activity – thousands were employedon the

docksandinrelatedindustries.

During the early Industrial Revolution

British industry rapidly expanded, creating

a huge demand for imported raw materials

andtheexportofmanufacturedgoods.Ship-

owners and traders fought successfully for

the creation of the world’s rst deep water

encloseddocksonrelativelyopenlandeastof

the City, downstream of London Bridge.The

West India Docks opened in 1802 and very

quicklybecameprotable.

The introduction of containerisation and the

increasinglylargevesselsemployedtotransport

them required much larger wharves than

London’s 19th century docks could provide.

PortactivitiesmoveddownrivertoTilburyand

75,000 direct jobs were lost in London’s historic

docks. Inevitably during the period from the

mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, trade in the docks

collapsed.Theimpactonthelocaleconomywas

devastating. By the 1980s the site of what has

become Canary Wharf lay abandoned within an

areaof1,000hectaresofvacantandderelictland

anddocksinLondon’sEastEnd.

Access by road was poor and there was

virtually no public transport.The Docklands

areawasperceivedtobeadangerouswasteland

of isolated council estates and abandoned

buildingsanddocks.TotherestofLondon,the

Docklands area was remote and difcult to

reachandhadlittleinitworthvisiting.Tolm

makers and television producers the legends

ofJacktheRipperandtheKraybrotherslived

on.Takentogetherthesefactorsprovedahuge

disincentive, especially to British institutional

investors.

In1981theLondonDocklandsDevelopment

Corporation (LDDC) was charged with the

formidable task of regenerating Docklands, and

key to this was a programme of enhancing the

then bleak prospects of much of the area by

restoring some key buildings and landscaping the

mostprominentderelictsites.

Much of the early debate about the area’s

future rightly focused on replacing the jobs

lost by the closure of the docks but this

provedtoonarrow.Aresponse,acknowledging

thepastbutlookingtothefuture,wassought.

Howeverwhilenewhousingcouldbeachieved

relativelyeasilyduetoahugepent-updemand,

providingnewjobswouldproveproblematic.

In 1982 an Enterprise Zone was created on

theIsleofDogstoaddressthis.Thescheme

allowed planning permission for most forms of

development,subjecttocertainconditionsand

controls.

After a poor initial response, interest surged

in1983whentherstphaseoftheDocklands

Light Railway (DLR) was announced, linking the

Isle of Dogs to the edge of the City of London

andinvestorsbegantorealisethearea’spotential.

Low-rise warehousing and small business units

followed and although modest, this prompted

widerinterest.Itwastoopenon30July1987,

just three months before London City Airport,

passing through what is now Canary Wharf to

IslandGardens.

In1986thederegulationof‘nancialservices’

in the UK created a huge demand for large

ofces,butatthattimenewdevelopmentinthe

City of London had been frustrated by extended

planninginquiries.

Land in and around the West India Docks was

available for development, but it was thought

too remote from London’s historic business

centre and difcult to reach. After several

aborted possibilities by potential developers

and entrepreneurs the LDDC at last found a

developerwithtruevision.

Canada’s Olympia & York, headed by the

Reichmann Brothers, had a track record of

delivery, most notably having builtTheWorld

FinancialCentreinNewYork.Italsohadahighly

skilled marketing and construction team seeking

newopportunities.

The company’s research in 1987 indicated

that up to 85% of the City’s ofce spaces

were technologically obsolete and unsuited for

modern requirements. Floor plates were too

smallandtheabilitytoretrotwaslimited.

It was not encumbered by the same prejudices

about East London harboured by many in the

City and it is perhaps not surprising that it was

anoverseasdeveloperthathadthecondence

tocommittosuchanambitiousundertaking.

In 1988 George (today Sir George) Iacobescu

came to London as Senior Vice-President of

Olympia&Yorktooverseeconstruction,budget

anddeliveryofCanaryWharf.HebecameChief

Executivenineyearslaterandtodayheremains

atthehelmofCanaryWharfGroup.

EventhoughLondonCityAirportwasopen,

lack of access was quickly identied as one of

the most signicant problems that required a

solution.TheDLRwouldhavetobeextendedto

the heart of the City (Bank station) and to the

airport,andplansfortheJubileeLineextension

and Docklands Highways, originally proposed by

the defunct Greater London Council, needed to

beresurrected.

Although the Canary Wharf site, like most of

thelandinDocklands,washeavilypollutedand

hadlittlecommercialvalue,theLDDCdemanded

specic performance from Olympia & York,

requiring4.5millionsquarefeetofdevelopment

tobecompletedby1991.ItwasPaulReichmann’s

visiontocreatea‘totalenvironment’.

Olympia &York wanted to create a cluster

of buildings to provide critical mass. In time

even the most ardent critics of tall buildings

in London came to accept the spatial and

aesthetic logic of Canary Wharf’s cluster of

‘skyscrapers’. Occupants could specify their

preferred architects who, within the constraints

of the Building Agreement, could ensure their

client’s needs werefullymet. It was conceived

as a mature city district with different architects

commissioned for the design of each building.

Everydetailofthenewdevelopmentneededto

achievethehigheststandards.

Sir Roy Strong, then the Director of the

VictoriaandAlbertMuseum,wascommissioned

The Canary Wharf complex in 2017 looking towards LCY.

Canary Wharf • 5352 • London City Airport

to advise on the design of Canary Wharf’s

squaresand streets.As the strategy developed

with the expansion of the estate, care was

taken to endow each open space with its own

distinct character; the contemplative, peaceful

environment of Westferry Circus with its

immaculate lawn and dense shrubbery contrasts

withthehardgranitepaving,waterfountainand

sculptured ventilation drums of Cabot Square,

different again to the green sward of Canada

SquarewithitssummerfestivalsandChristmas

skating and the sylvan enclavesof JubileePark,

ideal for sandwich lunches and summer picnics

awayfromthehustleandbustleofdailybusiness.

Caesar Pelli, architect of Olympia &York’s

World Finance Centre in New York City, was

commissioned to design the centrepiece, One

CanadaSquare,London’srstmodernskyscraper

with50oors.UntiltheopeningofTheShardit

wasthe tallestbuildingin London. (TheHilton

ParkLane,builtin1963,onlyhas28storeys.)

Olympia&Yorkcommitted£100millionfor

theextensionoftheDLRtotheCity.TheCanary

Wharf DLR station was rebuilt, fully integrated

intothemallsbelow.

Despitethecompletionoftherstphasein

1991 the institutions of the City of London were

resistanttochangeandwerereluctanttomove

east. Moreover, just as the rst buildings were

being completed in 1989 and 1990, the British

economywasmovingintoadeeprecession.

InMay1992,followingdifcultieswithsome

of its NorthAmerican investments and in the

context of the worldwide recession, the group’s

UK development company, Olympia & York

CanaryWharfLtd,wentintoadministration.

In1993witha workingpopulationof7,000

people and construction of the Jubilee Line

extension just beginning, a consortium of

banks that were owed£500 million took over

the project and succeeded in bringing it out of

administration.CanaryWharfwasbackontrack.

As the economy recovered and the much

delayedconstructionoftheJubileeLineextension

movedahead,thefortunesofthedevelopment

brightened and in 1995, Paul Reichmann, leading

agroupofinternationalinvestors,acquiredthe

estateoncemore.By1999,withthedevelopment

of the second phase complete, the working

population had increased to 25,000 people and

HSBC had nalised contracts for a 1.1 million

square feet headquarters building. Transport

infrastructure had dramatically improved with

signicantnancialsupportfromCanaryWharf

Group.The CanaryWharf Jubilee Line station

wasduetoopenontheeveoftheMillennium,

and the DLR extension to Lewisham was

complete.InMarch1999CanaryWharfGroup

PlcwasoatedontheLondonStockExchange

to become one of the largest publicly quoted

propertydevelopersintheUK.

At the turn of the century the growth of

Canary Wharf was dramatic. Citigroup and

Clifford Chance agreed to let signicant new

onemillionsquarefeetofbuildingsandMorgan

Stanley and Credit Suisse both signed leases to

extend their existing occupation in new 500,000

square feet of buildings. In 2001 Lehman and

Barclays Bank both agreed to lease separate one

millionsquarefeetofbuildingsastheirEuropean

and global headquarter buildings. By 2002 the

working population had more than doubled to

over55,000.

In September 2008 Lehman Brothers went

into administration sending an earthquake

through the nancial system and the banking

sector in particular.At this time between 70–

80% of occupiers at CanaryWharf werefrom

the nancial sector. Despite difcult market

conditions, in 2010 J. P. Morgan purchased 25

Bank Street in the heart of the Canary Wharf

complex,makingittheirEuropeanheadquarters

in2012.Thisdealpushedtheworkingpopulation

above 100,000 for the rst time. However, as

demand generally stalled, thoughts at Canary

WharfGroupbegantoturntothevariationof

theCanaryWharftenantbase.

Reectingsignicanttenantdiversicationon

the estate, agreement was reached the following

year on a new 20-storey tower to be constructed

at25ChurchillPlace.Initiallyhalfwaslettothe

EuropeanMedicineAgencyandsubsequentlythe

balancelettoEY(ErnstandYounguntil2013),

the accountancy group. Canary Wharf Group

had until then never undertaken residential

developmentbutin2012itacquiredtheWood

Wharf site to the east of Canary Wharf with

potentialforover3,000homes.

Itwasclear fromthe very earlydaysthat

occupants of Canary Wharf would need

muchmorethansomewheretoliveandwork

together in a pleasant and safe environment

– they would want places to eat, shop and

socialise.Inthe earliest daysofdevelopment

there were more market stalls than shops, and

stall-holders would close early as business was

so slow. As the working population started

to grow so did the range of cafés, bars and

restaurants,withaselectionofshopsproviding

essentialservices.

The necessary extension of the ‘retail offer’ was

initially met by the 100% pre-let opening of the

Canada Place Mall in 2000, anchored in 2002 by the

arrivalofthe100,000squarefeetWaitroseFoodand

Homestore.Todaythisremainsthemostsuccessful

store in the Waitrose group which has its best day’s

trading on a Saturday. Transport infrastructure at

CanaryWharfhasimprovedsothatlessthan5%of

peopleworkingatCanaryWharfnowarrivebycar.

There are now over 300 shops, bars and

restaurants at Canary Wharf, which includes the

newElizabethLinestationcomplex,andcovers

almost1millionsquarefeet.Uniquely,itisalllet.

The retail offering has been complemented

by an increasingly ambitious Arts and Events

programme of mainly free exhibitions, concerts,

performances and premier events open to

visitors,residentsandworkersalike.

The shops, bars and restaurants of Canary

Wharf attract people from a much wider

area beyond the estate, across the whole of

East London, and have an annual footfall of

over 43 million with around 100,000 people

regularly visiting at weekends. Canary Wharf

isnowaweek-day, eveningandweekend retail

destination. The public art programme, which

has been a feature of Canary Wharf throughout

itsdevelopment, hasbeen constantlyexpanded

and is now the largest open air corporate art

collection in London, comprising around 70

pieces, all ofwhichareavailable to be enjoyed

freeofchargebyvisitorstotheestate.

Over the years the character of Canary

Wharfhaschanged dramatically.  Itsoccupants

havemovedfrombeingaround20%non-nancial

– 80% nancial to today’s approximately 45%

non-nancial–55%nancial

Recent leasing transactions on the estate

reectthisdiversicationwithtechnology,media

and telecommunications leasing transactions now

exceedingbankingandnanceinnumberandsize.

As well as Canary Wharf Group, current

tenants include Bank of New York Mellon,

Moody’s, Euler Hermes, the Medical Defence

Union and Trinity Mirror Group (Daily Mirror,

Sunday Mirror, Sunday People and The Wharf).

Othertowerblocksonthesiteembracethe

one million square feet headquarter buildings

occupiedbyHSBC,CitigroupandBarclays.Anew

715,000squarefeetbuildingalreadypartiallylet

to Société Générale and a 60-storey residential

tower called Newfoundland will also shortly be

addedtothechangingCanaryWharfskyline.

Due to be opened in December 2018, Canary

Wharf railway station on the Elizabeth Line

(Crossrail) will add a direct train to Heathrow

fromthecomplex.DesignedbyFoster+Partners,

its above-ground oors are already open with

retailunits,toppedbyaroofgarden.

In 1980 there was one person employed

full time at Canary Wharf – the security guard

on the dock gate.Today there are more than

115,000 people working on the site which is

morethan in the heyday of the docks. Canary

Wharfhasexpandedtoover16millionsquare

feet of commercial space with ambitious plans

for further growth in an additional 11 million

squarefeetearmarkedfornewdevelopment.

ThefutureofCanaryWharfisassured!

Cabot Place Mall within the Canary Wharf complex.

Chapter Eight

ExCeL London

• 55

ExCeL London • 5756 • London City Airport

WouldExCeLLondonhavebeenbuiltwithoutthe

presence of London City Airport? It is a good and

fairquestion.AndinitsturntheLondonOlympics

of2012–wouldthesitehavebeen considered

without the opening of ExCeL London in 2000?

Whenthe bidwas woninJuly2005, ExCeL

Londonandtheairportwereprovingthatthere

wasnewlifetobehadinEastLondon.

By the end of the 20th century, London

had a dearth of large scale exhibition and

meetingcentres.EarlsCourt,a1930’sconcrete

mausoleum, was too small, and in much the

same area Kensington Olympia, dating from

Victoriantimes,stillonlyexistedbecauseitwas

not destroyed during World War II and was a

listedstructure.Thethreehallswhichmakeup

Olympiaarelessthanhalfamillionsquarefeet

of cluttered space.The area around the Royal

Victoria Dock remained desolate, a wasteland

ripeforredevelopment.

In July 1994 the LDDC short-listed four

rmstoputinbidsforalarge-scaleexhibition

centreon the northsideoftheRoyalVictoria

Dock noting it was just over a mile from an

international airport. By January the following

year they announced that London International

Exhibition Centre Ltd (LIECL) had been chosen

tobringtheschemetofruition.

Theideatooktimetodevelopandnanceand

itwasnotuntilJanuary1998thatitnallygotthe

greenlight.Bythistimeadevelopmentcompany,

HighpineLtd,hadbeensetuptobuildthecentre.

This was owned 68% by Malaysian nancial

interestsand24.5%byLIECL’sshareholders.The

balanceof7.5%wasinthenameoftheLDDC,

this share transferred to English Partnerships in

March1998.

The centre was constructed by Sir Robert

McAlpineLtdandopenedinNovember2000.

The exhibition building itself consists of

two column-free, rectangular, devisable halls of

approximately479,493squarefeeteach,oneither

side of a central boulevard containing catering

facilitiesandinformationpoints.Therearealso

three sets of function rooms, one overlooking

thewater,anotherabovethewesternendofthe

central boulevard, and the third on the north

sideofthebuilding.Theseareusedforsmaller

meetings, seminars, presentations, and corporate

hospitality.Thereare now eight hotels offering

over1,700roomsbetweenthem,morethan30

barsandrestaurants,plus3,700 parkingspaces

onthecampus.

One of the early problems associated with

ExCeL London was the lack of quality hotel

accommodation. This was alleviated in 2002

bythe arrival of the rst SunbornSuperYacht

Hotel. (A larger replacement Sunborn was

openedin2014offering130suites,arestaurant

andconventionfacilities.)

The centre’s ‘coming of age’ could be

considered to be 2004 when the Docklands

Light Railway (DLR) opened at Custom House

station(nowCustomHouseforExCeL)givinga

directrailservicetoBankandalso,viaCanning

Town, to the London Underground system.

Previously, CustomHousehadbeenastopon

theunderusedNorthLondonLine.

In2008,ExCeLLondonwasacquiredbyAbu

DhabiNationalExhibitionsCompany.

AlthoughtheRoyalVictoriaDockclosedto

commercialtrafcin1981,itisstillaccessiblefor

smallshipsandforthe2008WorldTravelMarket

a20-seatTwinOtteroatplaneewin!

On2April 2009,the annualG-20Leaders’

Summit on Financial Markets and the World

Economy, commonly called The London Summit

2009,washeldhere.Itwasthelargestgathering

of world leaders London has seen since the

rstGeneralAssemblyoftheUnitedNations

in1946.

TheLondonInternationalConventionCentre

(ICC),London’srstandonlyICC,wasopened

by Mayor Boris Johnson on 20 May 2010. A

self-contained complex, ICC London includes a

huge, exible, auditorium and London’s largest

The Connaught Bridge lies between the airport and

ExCeL London.

Aerial view showing proximity of LCY at left to ExCeL

London in centre.

ExCeL London • 5958 • London City Airport

banqueting room, the ICC Capital Hall, which

canhostover3,000foraformaldinner.Aseries

of conference rooms – the ICC Capital Suite – is

also available, comprising 17 individual meeting

rooms with the exibility to host breakout

sessions for 50 to 1,200 delegates, alongside

receptionandregistrationareas.

The eastern entrance of the facility is connected

to Prince Regent station and is also served by

abustoLondonCityAirport.Thisentranceto

ExCeLLondon givesaccesstothe International

Convention Centre (ICC at ExCeL). During

majorshowswithlargevisitorattendances,extra

shuttle trains are run between the venue and

Canning Town station, with interchange at London

Underground’sJubileeLine.

For the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics

ExCeL London was a key centre hosting the

boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis,

weightliftingandwrestling.Alegacywallfeatures

hand prints of the athletes that won Gold at

the venue plus the former Mayor of London

BorisJohnson.OnSunday16Decemberofthe

same year the centre played host to the BBC

Sports Personality of the Year – the award was

won by Bradley Wiggins, the Tour de France

and Olympic cycling time trial champion and

a Lifetime Achievement award went to Lord

(Sebastian)Coe,headoftheOlympicOrganising

Committee. 16,000 people watched at ExCeL

Londonand10.8millionUKtelevisionviewers.

SinceJune2012,theEmiratesAirLinecable

carnowlinksExCeLLondontoTheO2onthe

Greenwich Peninsula. It was estimated to cost

£60millionand1.5millionjourneysweretaken

onitin2016.

ExCeL London welcomed its 20 millionth

visitoron18June2014.

In 2015, ExCeL London announced the

opening of CentrEd at ExCeL, a dedicated

training and meetings space located close to

thewesternentranceofthevenueoverlooking

RoyalVictoriaDock,thusaddingtoExCeL’swide

rangeofexiblespaces.Onofferare29training

roomswithexiblewallstocreatespacesfor20

to400delegates.

Another water-borne hotel opened in 2016,

the oating Good Hotel, originally sited in

Amsterdam, it is now moored close by the

EmiratesAirBridge.Thisuniqueconceptoffers

148 rooms, a range of meeting rooms, four-

star accommodation and incorporates a social

awareness business concept – its singular aim

is to extensively train long-term unemployed

localsinvariousjobsinthehospitalityindustry.

Following successful conclusion, participants

will be offered a three-month contract at Good

Hotel, followed by professional mediation in the

city’s hotel business. The entire process gives

participants a real chance to get off welfare,

integrateintotheeconomyandbuildthemselves

anewfuture.

ExCeL London hosts numerous industry and

show business events. Just one example is the

2016 Doctor Who Celebration convention, a

truecarnivalforthe50thanniversaryoftheBBC

televisionseries,Doctor Who.

TheVirgin Active LondonTriathlon is held

at ExCeL London on an annual basis, with the

cycling and running legs taking place within and

aroundthevenueandtheswimmingtakingplace

intheRoyalVictoriaDock.

The Triathlon celebrated its 20th year at

ExCeL London in summer 2016. It is also the

organising centre for the London Marathon

where 40,000 athletes checked in over three

daysinApril2017.

A regular feature in the ExCeL London

calendar is the annual London Boat Show.

The annual World Travel Market is a major international

event, much supported by London City Airport.

The ExCeL London convention centre entrance.

Highlights of the 2017 show included the

boating lake, where you could try out kayaking

and zorbing, talks by yachtswoman Dee Caffari

andOlympicmedallistSaskiaClark,theDream

Lodge Marina featuring super yachts, Marine

Fashion Week catwalk and dance shows, as well

asmorethan300exhibitors.

The sheer size of ExCeL London makes it

ideal for the annual London Classic Car Show

and Historic Motorsport International, open to

thepublic.Hundredsofnotablevehiclescanbe

seen,andalsothegreatracingcarsofyesteryear.

Justaslarge,rathermoreprivate,andanannual

event,isDSEI,aworldleadingsecuritytradefair.

ExCeL London also provides space free of

charge for local schools and sports teams, in

additiontohostinganannualeventcalled‘ExCeL

intheArts’forlocalchildrentoattend.

In 2018, the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail), will

bringLondon’smainlinestationLiverpoolStreet

(for Stansted) to within ten minutes of ExCeL

London andTottenham Court Road only ve

minutesmore.

Chapter Nine

The Airport Timeline

Events at ExCeL London: cycle racing is an indoor

event (above left), Olympic table tennis (above) and

conferences (below).

• 61

62 • London City Airport

On31May1987thersteverlandingtookplace

atLondonCityAirport.

Through the following pages the history of

LCY is traced, coupled to what was going on in

theoutsideworld.Notalltheroutesandairlines

are noted, just the most important or unusual

ones, and when it comes to happenings which

occurredatthetimeintheworldwehavebeen

selectiveinmentioningevents,personalitieswho

havehittheheadlines,majorsportingoccasions,

andpeoplepassingonthathavecaughtoureye

andperhapshavebeenforgotten.You,thereader,

will have your own memories and opinions

and this can be challenged on the London City

Airport page www.facebook.com/londoncityair.

Right: The rst ever landing at London City Airport.

The Airport Timeline • 6564 • London City Airport

1981

September: The newly created London

Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC)

ChiefExecutive,RegWard,discussedwithPhilip

Beck, Chairman of construction company John

Mowlem & Co Plc, the idea of a heliport for

Docklands.

1982

February: Mowlem contacted Brymon Airways’

owner Bill Bryce, having seen a piece in Flight

Internationalmagazine,regardingthedeHavilland

Canada(DHC)Dash7aircraft.

27 June: BrymonAirways’ Chief Pilot, Captain

Harry Gee, accompanied by Captain Charlie

Beilby,landedaDash7onHeronQuaysinthe

West India Docks to demonstrate the feasibility

of the STOLPORT (short take-off and landing)

project.

Mowlem and Brymon Airways submitted to

the LDDC an outline proposal for a Docklands

STOLPORTcitycentregateway.

August:LDDCpublishedafeasibilitystudy.

October:Opinionpollamongresidentsshowed

two-to-oneinfavourofthenewairport.Mowlem

submittedanapplicationforplanningpermission.

Brymon Airways provided Dash 7 trips to

Plymouth for key stakeholders, community

leadersand themediatoexperiencethe quiet

airlinerinoperation(albeitfromHeathrow).

1983

Mowlem reached agreement with the Port of

London Authority (PLA) to lease land in the

RoyalDocks.

8June:ThePublicInquirylasting63daysbeganin

aformerPLAofcebuildingintheAlbertBasin,

broughtbackintouseforthepurpose.

30June:CaptainHarryGeereturnedtoHeron

Quayswitha Dash7todemonstrate itsquiet

STOL capability to the Inspector at the Public

Inquiry. Captain Richard Saw was the second

personinthecockpitonthisoccasion.

1984

August:SecretaryofStatefortheEnvironment,

Patrick Jenkin, indicated that he was disposed

to agree the application for outline planning

permission but asked for additional work on

the framing of the conditions and especially on

a more easily understood system for controlling

noise.

1985

March: Greater London Council (GLC) Leader,

KenLivingstone,failedinhisHighCourtbidto

securethereopeningoftheInquiry.

May: Outline planning consent was granted by

theSecretaryofState.

1986

February: Detailed planning consent given by

LDDC.

ConstructionworklaunchedbyAviationMinister,

MichaelSpicer.

29 May: The Prince of Wales laid the foundation

stoneoftheterminalbuilding.

BrymonAirwayscancelleditsmiddayightout

of Heathrow to Plymouth and Dash 7 G-BRYA

madealowlevelpassdowntheKingGeorgeV

Dockandstoletheshow.(G-BRYAwastherst

aircrafttolandattheairportin1987.)

August:LondonCity’srstAirportDirector,

JohnDouthwaite,tookuphisappointment.

1981–1986

This was to become the apron. Now buried under the terminal, the dry dock in 1986.

Prince Charles reads the foundation stone

plaque.

1986 London City prior to opening with shorter runway. Mowlem

had provided for the extension.

Brymon Airways Heron Quays, 1983.

The Airport Timeline • 67

Harvey Elliott

Harvey Elliott was

born 16April 1942. He

died after a long illness

9 March 2017, aged 74. The following article

published5November1997isbalancedandasks

alltherightquestions.Itisattingtributetoa

lovelyman.

When Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over

Lockerbie at around 19:00 on the evening of

21 December 1998 with 259 people on board,

Harvey Elliott, the specialist air correspondent

on The Times, took the lead role in producing for

the following morning’s edition one of the most

dramaticfrontpagestoriesever.

Overthenextfewdaysheexclusivelyrevealed

therstevidence,includingthediscoveryofheat

damage on the plastic lining in one of the cargo

bays,pointingtoamassivebombexplodinginthe

hold before the airliner crashed to the ground,

killingafurther11people.

Elliott worked in Fleet Street as a reporter

andspecialistcorrespondentfor30years,rstat

the Daily Mail and then at The Times. He dabbled

in another career, as Press Ofcer for British

Caledonian Airways, but two years away from

theprofessionhelovedprovedtoomuchforhim

andhereturnedtothereportingworld.

A friend, who was still a reporter in the

provinces,recalledareunionafterhehadmoved

to Fleet Street when Elliott splashed out with

a bottle of Meursault burgundy, costing more

thanhisfriendwasearninginaweek.Itwasvery

muchpartofElliott’sstyleasaFleetStreetman.

When he joined The Times, in September

1986,Elliotthadmorethanprovedhisworthas

a tough competitor in the reporting world after

18 years with the Daily Mail under the editorship

ofSirDavidEnglish,whooncewrotetohim:‘IfI

had an extra ten people like you on the staff, the

Mailwouldbeunstoppable.’

On the Daily Mail as Air Correspondent he

became an authoritative chronicler of the ups

and downs of Sir Freddie Laker, the private

airline entrepreneur whose Laker Airways went

bankrupt. Later, as Defence Correspondent,

hecoveredtheFalklandsconictin1982from

Whitehall,writing21outof24splashes.

Aloverofcricket,inthe1990sElliottfounded

the Fleet Street Exiles, a mixed bag of fellow

journalists and friends who could swing a bat or

bowl an imperious ball, playing in the Caribbean,

Australia,SriLankaandotherexoticlocations.It

wasamasterstroke.ForoneCaribbeantourhe

arranged for the whole team and their partners

totravelbetweenislandsbycruise ship. Once,

after a match in St Lucia, the players got so

carried away by the beauty of the island that they

returnedlatetothecruiseshiptondafuming

captain. He had missed his departure slot and

hadtopayanotherhour’smooringfee.

Rejoining The Times from British Caledonian

Elliott eventually combined the roles of Air

Correspondent and Travel Correspondent,

which provided extensive opportunities for

globetrotting.Itwashisclosecontactswiththe

travel industry that helped him to orchestrate

the sumptuous itineraries for the Fleet Street

Exiles.

The London City Airport story was the

culmination of an interest he took in the project

since its inception, visiting the site during Ken

Livingstone’sHighCourt attempt to derail the

schemeandlateryingonaDash7toPlymouth

tointerviewCharlesStuart.

His article (see overleaf), published on the

morning that HM The Queen opened the

terminal, was accurate and as things turned out

trulyperceptive.Henishedwiththewords.‘All

thatisneedednowisaninuxofpassengers’.He

wasrightbutittooktime!

The opening of the terminal on 5 November 1987.

The Queen arrived by Rolls-Royce and departed

on the Royal Nore barge, operated by Thames

Waterman on behalf of the PLA. Brymon Airways

and Eurocity Express mounted a ypass.

The Airport Timeline • 6968 • London City Airport

Today the Queen opens the London City Airport,

built in Docklands to serve executives requiring a

swift, easy route to the Continent

Taxi drivers have not yet included it in ‘the

knowledge’. Much of the immediate area still

resembles a bombed site. There is still confusion

over the name. And only a fraction of its intended

market in Europe has been opened up.

But London City Airport, or Stolport, depending

on your preference, is in business.

All those involved – especially the developers

Mowlem, and the airlines Brymon and Eurocity

Express – believe they could be on the threshold of

bringing a revolution to the way businessmen travel

between London and Europe.

If they are right, the thousands working within

the City of London, or within striking distance of

the burgeoning East End, could be ready to turn their

backs on the crowded Tube journey to Heathrow, or

the battle through the backpacking holiday-makers

at Gatwick, and simply take the short taxi journey

to LCY, as the airport has been ofcially designated.

Already some doubters are predicting that the

early nancial analysis is, to say the least, optimistic.

They claim that, even with the landing fees as high

as those at Heathrow, Mowlem will nd it difcult to

make a return on its £30 million investment for many

years. Most people, it is argued, travel on business

trips from their homes rather than making spur-of-

the-moment decisions to go from their ofces.

So are they really likely to hail a cab, run the

risk of the driver not knowing where the new airport

is, ght through the heavy Docklands trafc and

board a small 50-seat turbo-prop aircraft that is

slower than a jet and which, on arrival in Paris or

Brussels, will have no different facilities from the

mass of scheduled ights coming from Heathrow

or Gatwick?

Yes they will say the airlines condently. And

they also claim that, more importantly, thousands

of businessmen from the Continent will want to use

London City. In fact, Plymouth-based Brymon believes

that at least 60 per cent of its passengers will originate

in European capitals, attracted by ying to an airport

within easy reach of their destination, probably the City.

Both airlines will be watching their results closely

during the next few months, hoping they have even

underestimated the demand and in the expectation that

they will at least live up to their pre-launch publicity.

The story of the Docklands airport development

is one of the almost unparalleled private optimism

and enterprise. The London Docks have been at the

heart of the capital’s industrial life for more than 500

years. Huge ships bringing vital supplies to millions

living in the South-East unloaded their cargoes on

the quaysides, giving employment to thousands of

dockers, shipping agents and related industries.

By the late 1970s container ships and bulk carriers

had replaced the cargo carriers and despite desperate

and bitter attempts by the dockers to keep them open,

the London Docks were doomed.

In 1981 the up-river docks nally closed, throwing

28,000 men out of work and resulting in a gradual

decay and dereliction that blighted the entire area.

But the Government decided to rejuvenate the

area through the London Docklands Development

Corporation, which had the power to cut through red

tape and bring new industries into the 5,000 acres of

wasteland. At about the same time a new breed of

ultra-quiet short take-off and landing aircraft were

being developed, especially in Canada, where the

de Havilland Dash 7, four-engined turbo-prop was

being built.

Reg Ward, head of the LDDC, saw the

signicance at once. He was keen to maintain some

form of transport in the docks and when he began

talking to Philip Beck, chairman of Mowlem, who

was a private pilot and aviation enthusiast, an idea

gradually began to take shape.

They contacted Bill Bryce, then the owner of

Brymon, who had taken delivery of his rst Dash 7,

capable of carrying 50 people around 400 miles, and

asked if it could land on 2,500 ft of runway. It could.

The project was born.

From their rst formal meeting some near

miracles have been achieved in winning approval for

the scheme, overcoming local opposition, proving

the operation was both safe and potentially viable,

building the actual airport itself and ending with an

ofcial opening by the Queen.

The airport itself lies to the east of

the Isle of Dogs on 667 undeveloped

acres that are larger than the City

and the West End combined. Within

that area a nger pier between the

Albert Dock and the King George

V Dock is a site tailor-made for

the construction of a runway, from

which the Dash 7 can operate.

Once the project was clearly on

course a whole range of airlines

showed an interest in ying from

there and the Civil Aviation

Authority began a series of

route licence applications in which each had

to prove its worthiness and operational capabilities.

From the six on the short list of potential operators

just two now remain – Eurocity Express, a purpose-

made offshoot of Michael Bishop’s highly successful

and slick British Midlands Airways, and Brymon,

run by the former BEA boss Charles Stuart.

They will y from land that is actually owned by

Port of London Properties, originally the property

division of the Port of London Authority, and leased

to Mowlem, which has designed and built the airport

and will operate it.

They fought through a full public inquiry, during

which local objections were answered with detailed

explanation, and received nal planning consent in

February last year.

Work on the airport itself actually began in April

that year, the main concentration being on the 92-acre

site itself, just north of the Thames. Working with R.

Seifert & Partners as the architects and engineers

Donald Butler Associates, Mowlem drew up a tight

construction programme, guaranteed to complete the

construction in just 18 months.

Warehouses on the site were demolished and

the dock measuring 250 x 30 metres had to be

decked over in an astonishing operation. The dock

was dammed and drained, and 128 steel columns

were built from the dock base and were capped

with a giant slab of concrete that now forms the

aircraft apron.

Two other dry docks were lled in to form part of

the at area at each end.

The alignment of the runway itself was dictated

by a tall mill building to the west of the site and a

proposed bridge over the Thames to

the east. Through a trick of clever design the runway

is actually two overlapping runways in one, and is

tted with the latest navigation and landing aids. It

was ready for the rst Dash 7 landing in May this year.

One of the airport’s most obvious and vital

features is the 8,000 square metre terminal, which is

covered in a striking blue aluminium and will enable

passengers to pass easily through to aircraft parked

alongside the 300-metre-long pier.

Waiting passengers will have a clear view of the

docks and aircraft movements, while the interior

design is deliberately kept simple and classic to

enable fast departure – it is claimed that a passenger

can be airborne within 15 minutes of arrival at the

airport – and yet the terminal is designed to be an

extension of the ofce.

This basic belief – that the passenger should be

able to use the airport as easily as he does his own

ofce – dominates the design and philosophy behind

the entire concept. The airport will not be for the man

or woman who is looking for the cheapest way to y

and is targeted almost exclusively for the business

passenger.

But the most important of all is the business

centre which, when it is opened in December,

will be on the rst oor and will be open from

7.30am to 8.30pm.

It seems that everything is now in place. All that is

needed now is an inux of passengers.

Harvey Elliott

Air Correspondent

Reproduced from of 5 November 1987

The slick City yers of

the future

The Airport Timeline • 71

THE HISTORIC

COLLECTION

Wedevotethistwo-pagedouble-spread

to some of the famous and not so

famous aircraft that have met both the

CAAandtheairport’srequirementsand

have graced London CityAirport over

the 30 yearsmainlyonthe‘Fundays’ at

the weekend on a Saturday afternoon

and Sunday morning, when the airport is

normallyclosed.

Above left: Lady wingwalkers. At one of the

open days the Utterly Butterly team gave a

display with their Boeing Stearman PT-17.

Left: Lufthansa’s Junkers Ju 52/3m D-AQUI

rst ew in 1936.

Below: The 2011 ‘Funday’ with some of the

aircraft in the line-up. Note at back P-51D WZ-I

Big Beautiful Doll. More than 15,000 North

American Mustangs were built, many serving

with the RAF.

Above: With a 40m wingspan

the largest ever aircraft to

land at London City Airport

was a military Hercules

bringing in the RAF

Regiment Band.

Right: British Eagle was an

early independent competitor

to BOAC. Douglas DC6

G-APSA is still around and

visited LCY on an Open Day.

Right: Two-seater Spitre

trainer at an Open Day.

Right: Polly Vacher gained

an MBE for the disabled

air scholarship work. She

also ew this Piper Dakota

around the world. Fun Day

July 2007.

The Airport Timeline • 7372 • London City Airport

1987

Terry Waite (right) was kidnapped in

Beirut. He was to remain captured for

1,763 days before being reunited with

his mentor Lord Runcie, Archbishop of

Canterbury.

The year that London City Airport opened

was also the same year that British Airways

wasprivatised andlistedon theLondon Stock

Exchange. Sir John (later Lord) King was

Chairman and wasted no time in acquiring

BritishCaledonianAirways.(Dan-Airfollowedin

1992andBritishMidlandin2012.)

British stories of note included the Zeebrugge

ferry disaster, the Hungerford Massacre, the Great

Storm,BlackMondayandtheKing’sCrossre.

On6

March the car ferry MS Herald of Free

Enterprise, which started its journey in Dover,

capsized off Zeebrugge harbour in Belgium,

killing193people.Althoughtheimmediatecause

of the sinking was found to be negligence by the

assistant boatswain, the ofcial inquiry placed

more blame on his supervisors and a general

cultureofpoorcommunication.

In August Michael Robert Ryan shot and killed

16peopleatvariouslocations,beforecommitting

suicide in the Hungerford massacre – at the time

theworstBritishmassshooting.

TheGreatStormof15–16Octoberbrought

hurricane-force winds of up to 120 miles per

hour hitting much of southern England, and killing

22people. JustthreedayslaterBlackMonday

sawstockmarketlevelsfallsharply–thecrash

began in Far Eastern markets the morning of

19 October, but accelerated once the London

Stock Exchange opened. London had closed

earlyonthepreviousFridayduetothestorm.

By 09:30 the London FTSE100 had fallen over

136points.

The King’s Cross re of 18 November on

theLondon Undergroundkilled31 peopleand

injureda further100. The inquiry determined

thattherehadstartedduetoalitmatchbeing

droppedontothewoodenescalator.Asaresult

oftheinquirywoodenescalatorswereeventually

replacedwithmetalones.

TerryWaite,thespecialenvoyoftheArchbishop

of Canterbury in Lebanon, was kidnapped in

Beirut; Margaret Thatcher was re-elected as Prime

Minister; the Docklands Light Railway (DLR),

therstdriverlesspassengertrainserviceinthe

UnitedKingdomwasformallyopenedbyQueen

Elizabeth and on 8 November, 12 people were

killedbyaProvisionalIrishRepublicanArmybomb

ataRemembranceDayserviceatEnniskillen.

In news around the world, President Reagan told

the American people that he took full responsibility

for the arms-for-hostages crisis, otherwise known

as the Iran Contra Affair – although to this day

Reagan’sroleinthetransactionsisnotdenitively

known. It was also the year that 18-year-old

West German pilot Mathias Rust evadedSoviet

air defences and landed a private plane on Red

SquareinMoscow.InentertainmentThe Simpsons

cartoonrstappearedasaseriesofshortsonThe

Tracey Ullman ShowandMichaelJacksonreleased

his Badalbum.

InsportNelsonPiquetofBrazilwontheF1

World Championship, Pat Cash won Wimbledon

andEvertonwereFirstDivisionchampions.The

rst Rugby World Cup was co-hosted by

New Zealand and Australia with New Zealand

eventuallywinningthecup.

Famous people that died included Andy

Warhol, artist; Fred Astaire, dancer; Rita

Hayworth, actress; Danny Kaye, actor; Dean

Martin, actor; Rudolf Hess, Nazi Deputy Führer

and Eamon Andrews, radio and television

presenter best known for This Is Your Life.

Passenger total 15,000

February: London City Airport was ofcially

namedbytheLordMayorofLondonSirDavid

Rowe-Ham. LCY was conrmed as the ofcial

designator of the International Air Transport

Association (IATA), the trade association of

most of the world’s international airlines. Not

all airlines are members, however, including

several low-cost carriers such as easyJet (UK),

Ryanair (Ireland), Wizz Air (Hungary) and

Southwest Airlines (USA). The International

Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) code for

London CityAirport is EGLC. Montreal-based

itisaspecialiseddivisionoftheUnitedNations

focussingonstandardsandsafety.

April: Brymon Airways and Eurocity Express

weregrantedroutelicencesbytheCivilAviation

Authority (CAA) with Brymon Airways winning

alucrativepartnershipwithAirFranceforaParis

CharlesdeGaulleservice,mainlyduetoChief

ExecutiveCharlesStuart’sperfectFrenchanda

good relationship with the higher echelons when

at BritishAirways. (Air France was the airline

with the longest continuous London City Airport

involvement,untilMarch2017,whentheyclosed

theroutetoParisOrly.)

31 May: Brymon Airways Dash 7 (G-BRYA)

landedandbecametherstaircrafttooperate

inandoutofLondonCityAirport.

26 October: Brymon Airways and Eurocity

Express start commercial ights with Dash 7s.

The rst inbound was Brymon Airways from

Plymouth CityAirport and the rst outbound

Eurocity Express to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Eurocity Express also introduced Brussels

NationalAirport.

5 November: Ofcial opening by Queen

Elizabeth,whoarrivedinherRolls-Royce,much

appreciatedbythelocalresidents.

Charles Stuart and Eurocity Chairman Michael

Bishop (later Lord Glendonbrook) were standing

at the bottom of the steps of their respective

airline’s aircraft waiting to be presented to

Queen Elizabeth.When she came to speak to

CharlesStuartheinvitedhertoclimbthestairs

andtakealookinsidetheaircraft.HerMajesty

took up the offer and disappeared from sight for

afewminutes.MrBishopwasirked,whichwas

obvioustoallinvolvedwatchingtheproceedings.

What was unusual was Queen Elizabeth’s

departure from dockside London City Airport

on the Royal Nore, via the King GeorgeV lock

into the Thames and down to Westminster

Pier. Itis notknownwhatshesaidpassingthe

Tower of London but it is rumoured that she

was absorbed by the airport and passed on her

experiencetoPrincePhilip.HisRoyalHighness,

alwaysanaviationfan,accompaniedherontwo

subsequentvisits.

18 December: Flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle

were suspended by the CAA because of air

trafcconictsafetyfearsoverKent.

In those early weeks getting to London City

Airport was not easy. There was no direct

surface access from the City or theA13 and

the all-important North CircularRoad(A406).

Arrivals by train needed to take the grim

NorthLondonLinerailwaytoSilvertown(later

renamed Silvertown for London CityAirport)

andndtheirwaythroughalocalhousingestate.

Taxis were not keen to deliver clients to the

airport,becausetheycouldhavealongwaitfora

return fare, but the introduction by Mowlem of a

freecoffeeshopseemedtodothetrick.

The Airport Timeline • 75

1988

George H. Bush becomes US President.

TerroristattacksweremajornewsintheUK.

During the funeral in Northern Ireland on

16 March of three Irish Republican Army (IRA)

members killed in Gibraltar, loyalist paramilitary

Michael Stone murdered three mourners and left

70wounded.Stonewaseventuallyoverpowered

and arrested by members of the Royal Ulster

Constabulary.

On the morning of 12 December, a crowded

passenger train crashed into the rear of another

train that had stopped at a signal, just south of

Clapham Junction railway station in London, and

subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling

intheoppositedirection.Atotalof35peoplewere

killed in the collision, while 484 were injured.The

subsequent investigation found that the collision

was the result of a signal failure caused by a wiring

fault.BritishRailwasned£250,000forviolationsof

healthandsafetylawinconnectionwiththeincident.

On 21 December all 243 passengers and

16 crew were killed on PamAm Flight 103, a

transatlanticight fromFrankfurt toDetroitvia

London and New York – the attack later became

knownastheLockerbiebombing.Largesections

of the aircraft crashed onto residential areas of

Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 11 more people on

theground.ALibyanintelligenceofcerwasjailed

for life in connection with the bombings – the

only person ever to be convicted. However, in

2003 Libyan leader Muammar Gadda accepted

responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and

paidcompensationtothefamiliesofthevictims

–althoughhemaintainedthathehadnevergiven

theorderfortheattack.

In British politics the Liberal Democrat Party

was formed, a merger between the Liberals and

the Social Democrats, after disappointing results

inthe1987elections.PaddyAshdownwaselected

itsleader.Itwasthesameyearthatthe£1note

ceasedtobelegaltender.

George H.W. Bush became the rst sitting

Vice-PresidentoftheUnitedStatesin152years

to be elected as President in 1988.The other

major story in the USA was the trial of Lieutenant

Colonel Oliver North and Vice-Admiral John

Poindexter for their part in the arms for cash

scandal,otherwiseknownastheIran-Contraaffair.

Otherinternationaleventsincluded:al-Qaeda

being formed by Osama bin Laden; the end of

the Iran-Iraq War; François Mitterrand being

re-elected Prime Minister of France and Benazzir

BhuttotothesamepositioninPakistan.Aconcert

was held at Wembley Stadium to mark Nelson

Mandela’s 70th birthday, which had an estimated

globalaudienceof600million.

Sport news was dominated by the Summer

OlympicsinSeoul,SouthKorea.TeamGBwon

ve golds (including golds for Steve Redgrave

in rowing, Adrian Moorhouse in swimming) ten

silverandninebronze.CanadianBen Johnson

won the 100-metre nal with a new world

record,butwaslaterdisqualiedafterhetested

positivefortheillegaldrug,stanozolol.

Other major sporting events included the

WinterOlympicsinCalgary,Canada;theUEFA

football cup was won by West German team

BayerLeverkusen (English teams were barred

following the 1985 Heysel disaster); and the

RugbyWorldCupwonbyitshosts,Australia.

FamouspeoplewhodiedincludeRoyOrbison,

singer; Roy Kinnear, actor and comedian (and

father of actor Rory Kinnear), and Kenneth

Williams,comedyactor.

Passengertotal133,000

20 January: Brymon Airways resumed its six

times daily service to Paris Charles de Gaulle,

in conjunction with Air France, with among the

passengers BBC presenter Gloria Hunniford who,

on the spur of the moment, thought it would be

agoodpiece.Catchingthe07:00outbound,she

was back at Broadcasting House for her 14:00

radioshow.

The airport launched a 35-minute Riverbus

service to and from Embankment. Airport

passengers disembarked at the Charrington

Pier on the RiverThames with a short coach

connectiontotheterminal.Itwaspopularwith

passengers but less so with Mowlem, who lost

money.Radioconnectionconrmedpassengers

andights.Aircraftwereknowntowait.

Eurocity Express changed its name to London

CityAirwaysandinOctoberconcludedadealto

codeshare with the then Belgian national airline

Sabena on a new route to Brussels National

Airport.

19June:BillLindsellwasappointedLondonCity

AirportDirector.

24 July: Successful demonstration ight by a

LoganairBAe146.

A poll noted 83% of local residents were in

favouroftheBAe146jet beingallowedtoy

fromLondonCityAirport.

At the original Heron Quays Docklands Light

Railway (DLR) station platform there was a small

plaqueunveilingceremonytocommemoratethe

trialDash7landingstherein1982and1983.

ConstructionstartedatCanaryWharf.

Privatejetsbegantousetheairport.

Above: Scottish airline Loganair brought in a BAe 146

to demonstrate to the public how quiet a jet could be.

Below: This was the aircraft that did not make LCY.

An artist impression of the BAe 146 in Brymon Airways

colours.

The Airport Timeline • 77

1989

Stef Graf takes Wimbledon for the

second time – She eventually gained

seven victories.

In Britain two disasters, both health and safety

related,werethefocusofBritishmediaattention.

On 15 April the crush of supporters at the

Hillsborough Stadium, the home of Shefeld

Wednesday, during an FA Cup semi-nal match

betweenLiverpoolandNottinghamForestleft96

LiverpoolFootballClubsupportersdead.Andon

20 August, 51 people died when the Marchioness

pleasure boat collided with a barge on the

RiverThames. Long and complex investigations

occurred after both disasters and the conclusions

led to improvements in safety both at football

groundsandontheriver.

Other British news included the release on

19 October of the ‘Guildford Four’, who had

been convicted of bombings carried out by the

ProvisionalIrishRepublicanArmy.

It was a historic year internationally as the

‘Revolutions’oftheoldEasternBlocsawthe

beginning of the end of the Cold War and the

settingupofdemocraticstatesin previously

communist countries. Major protests took

place in East Germany (Leipzig – 300,000

people) and Czechoslovakia (Letná Square –

800,000people).

Against a backdrop of an unstable economy and

limitedpoliticalfreedomoveronemillionpeople

protested in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China.

The protests were forcibly suppressed after the

governmentdeclaredmartial law in what became

widelyknownastheTiananmenSquareMassacre.

The year also saw changes in the way that

Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and

Yugoslaviawerepoliticallyrun.On23December

visa-free travelling was nally allowed between

EastandWestGermanyafterseveralgapswere

madeintheBerlinWallbyprotesters.

In other steps for democracy, the President

of SouthAfrica P.W. Botha (who had just been

elected) met the imprisoned Nelson Mandela face-

to-face;Brazilhelditsrstpresidentialelectionsin

29 years (won by Fernando Collor de Mello of

the now-defunct National Reconstruction Party)

and France celebrated the 200th anniversary of

theFrenchRevolution.

On8January–theKegworthairdisaster:a

British Midland Boeing 737 crashed onto the

M1 motorway on the approach to East Midlands

Airport,killing44people.On8September–a

Partnair Convair 580 disintegrated over the

NorthSea.Althoughthecausewasdisputed,the

owners claimed that a USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon

hadownpastatsupersonicspeedcausingshock

waves.Theaircraft’sservicerecordswerepoor.

Also in 1989, Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashed

in Paramaribo, Surinam, killing 176 people and

United Airlines Douglas DC-10 which made

a (semi) controlled crash landing at Sioux City

Airport after the tail-mounted engine had failed,

killing 112 people; 184 on board survived. (In

somewaystheyingwasevenmoreremarkable

thanthemiracleontheHudsonRiver,NewYork,

in2016.)

Chelsea beat Portsmouth in the FA Cup,

Stef Graf and Boris Becker ofWest Germany

wontheirrespectivesinglestitlesatWimbledon.

England held Sweden to a 0–0 draw in Sweden,

qualifyingforthe1990FIFAWorldCup.

Itwastheyearofthedeathofthreesignicant

political gures:  Hirohito, Emperor of Japan;

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader

of Iran; and Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian

dictator, together with his wife Elena, who were

both executed. Other notables who died were

Irving Berlin, composer of White Christmas

who passed away at the age of 101; Bette

Davis, actress; Daphne du Maurier, author; Lord

(Laurence)Olivier,actoranddirector,andSamuel

Beckett, Irish writer and Nobel Prize laureate.

Passengertotal216,000.

Passenger increase of 62% on the previous year.

Number of ights 10,764, up 30%.

Brymon Airways Chief Executive, Charles

Stuart, called for a DLR link to the airport.

In the spring, Flexair (later to become VLM)

introduced a service to Rotterdam with a

Dornier 228 turboprop. It had started as a

weeklycharterightbringinginlabourtowork

ontherebuildingofLiverpoolStreetstation.It

was noisy and cramped but did the job and with

thewordgettingaroundbecameadailyservice.

Aberdeen-based Business Air Centre arrived

withan18-seatDHCTwinOtterutilityaircraft

available for charter. (Bought later by British

MidlandAirways).

BrymonAirwaystookdeliveryofa35-seatDHC

Dash 8 twin turboprop. (This would later be

developedintothe78-seatBombardierQ400).

October: London City Airport submitted a

Planning Application to extend the runway,

allowing the airport to serve more distant

destinationswithabroaderrangeofaircraft.

A London Underground connection for

the airport was highlighted at Highbury

& Islington Station. This was part of the

North London Line which stopped at the

renamed Silvertown for London City Airport

station on its way to North Woolwich.

The airport terminal, closed on a Saturday

evening, hosted a concert by the Docklands

Sinfonietta.The performance was restricted to

200, tickets costing £75 each. Prots went to

Barnardo’schildren’scharity.

London City Airport won a competition for ‘Loo

oftheYear’.

TheEasternAccessroadwasopenedinOctober

linking the A13 to North Woolwich and the

airport.(ThiswouldlaterjointheRoyalAlbert

Dock Spine Road and connect to the new

Connaught Crossing Bridge to the west of the

airport.)

Brymon Airways was joint runner-up with British

Airways in the UK Domestic Airlines category

at the Executive Travel awards held at London’s

GrosvenorHouseHotel.Inacceptingtheaward

Charles Stuart called for London City Airport to

be replicated on land between Heathrow and the

M4asaquickwayofincreasingprovincialslotsat

Heathrow (then the world’s busiest international

airport).

London City Airport is unique in that it is closed from

lunchtime Saturday until lunchtime Sunday offering

an opportunity for social events in the terminal. An

orchestral concert was held in the early days, and seen

here, a party for the locals.

The Airport Timeline • 7978 • London City Airport

1990

Margaret Thatcher resigns after 11

years as Prime Minister.

In Britain 200,000 people protested against the

PollTaxon31March,acounciltaxbasedonthe

numberofpeoplelivinginapropertyratherthan

theproperty’svalue.Theprotestledtoriotingand

theunpopularpolicywasasignicantfactorinthe

ConservativePrimeMinisterMargaretThatcher’s

resignationon22November.Shewassucceeded

byJohnMajor.

Other British news included the riot at

Strangeways prison, Manchester, in April which

lastedoverthreeweeks–thelongestriotin

Britishhistory.Oneprisonerdied,147prison

ofcers and 47 prisoners were injured and

theriot causedover£50million indamages.

On 30 July the Irish Republican Army blew

up Member of Parliament Ian Gow with a car

bomboutsidehishome–thereasontheygave

was because he was a ‘close personal associate’

ofthethenPrimeMinisterMargaretThatcher.

Alsoin1990,therstwomenwereordained

asAnglicanpriests.

Following the mostly peaceful revolutions in

1989,over25countries,mostlyfromtheoldSoviet

Bloc,haddemocraticelectionsforthersttimein

recenthistory.ThesetookplaceinCzechoslovakia,

East Germany, Hungary, Russian SFSR, Serbia and

Ukraine.EastandWestGermanymergedandwith

itthedestructionoftheBerlinWall.

MikhailGorbachev,thePresidentoftheSoviet

Union, was honoured for his efforts to bring

peace to the region by winning the Nobel Peace

PrizeandWesternleadersmettoofciallymark

theendoftheColdWar.Freeelectionswerealso

heldinBrazilandChile.

On 6 March a Lockheed SR-71, known as

the Blackbird, crossed North America in 1 hour

7minutes54secondsatanaveragespeedof2,242

miles per hour, an air speed record, which as of

July2017stillholds.

In other international news the United States

invadedPanamaon3January.NelsonMandela

was freed after 27 years behind bars on 11

February; the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

was launched into low earth orbit on 24 April;

the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, on 2 August

(whicheventuallyledtotheGulfWar);andon

1 November Mary Robinson became the rst

femalePresidentofIreland.

In sport Buster Douglas defeated Mike Tyson

by a knockout in round ten to win the world

heavyweighttitle,inwhatmanyconsiderboxing’s

biggestupsetever;WestGermanywontheFIFA

World Cup in Rome in its nal tournament

beforenationalreunication,defeatingdefending

championArgentina1–0 in thenalandAyrton

Sennawasworldmotorracingchampion.

The Hollywood stars Greta Garbo, Ava

GardnerandSammyDaviesJnralldiedalongwith

RoaldDahl,thefamouschildren’sauthor.

Passengertotal230,000.

Passenger increase of 6% on the previous year.

Number of ights 13,135, up 22%.

Airport Director Bill Lindsell retired and was

succeededbyWilliam(Bill)Charnock.

July:A Public Inquiry opened into jet services

to operate concurrently with the turboprops

alreadylicensed.Itwastolast,withsummerand

Christmasbreaks,untilJanuary1991.

London City Airways was absorbed into British

MidlandAirwaysandlefttheairport.

Published fares for the Riverbus service from

LondonCityAirportwere£4.80tobothLondon

Bridge City on the south side of the Thames and

SwannLaneonthenorthbank,and£6.00from

EmbankmenttoCharingCross.Atthistimethe

service was up to threeper hour and 26% of

BrymonAirways’passengersusedit.

There were further awards for Brymon Airways

at the Air Transport World ‘Commuter Airline

of the Year’. The carrier, with its Air France

partnership, made much of its early 07:00

departure to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

complete with Champagne breakfast. Brymon

Airways’ Charles Stuart, and a small press party,

were offered by Air France the 10:00 Concorde

departure from Paris to New York to collect the

trophy.SadlyParisfoggedinandthey(just)made

the 10:00 British Airways' Heathrow departure,

inthosedaysfromTerminal4.

Brymon Airways added Lille, Nantes and

StrasbourgattherequestofAirFrance.

Above: Before trains. An early visitor was Michael

Portillo (right), with his Secretary of State for Transport

hat on, seen here with Robert Hardless, then with

Brymon Airways.

Left: The original check-in area with natural lighting

through the transparent roof. Seen left is John Horne,

later to be Airport Director, and far right Nicholas

Hopkins, Mowlem PRO.

The Airport Timeline • 81

1991

Robert Maxwell fell off his yacht

Lady Ghislaine – his body was later

recovered.

TheProvisionalIrishRepublicanArmy(IRA)were

thefocusofseveralmajornewsstories.

On7FebruaryabombstruckDowningStreet

whilstacabinetmeetingwastakingplace.Dueto

bomb-proof windows none of the cabinet were

hurt, though four other people received minor

injuries.Elevendayslateronthe18Februarythe

group attackedPaddington andVictoriastations,

killingonepersonandinjuring38.

The Provisional IRA were in the news for

a different reason on the 14 March when the

‘Birmingham Six’ were released after being

erroneously imprisoned for 16 years for the

‘Birmingham pub bombings’, in which 21 people

died.Theirconvictionsweredeclaredunjustand

unsatisfactory and were quashed by the Court

ofAppeal.The six were awarded compensation

rangingfrom£840,000to£1.2million.

InotherBritishnews,on5NovemberRobert

Maxwell, the media proprietor and former MP,

made his last contact with the crew of the Lady

Ghislaine, his yacht which was cruising off the

CanaryIslands.Hewasfoundtobemissinglater

in the morning and his body was subsequently

recovered fromtheAtlantic Ocean.Suicidewas

ruled out and the inquest found that his death

was caused by a heart attack combined with

accidental drowning. He was presumed to have

fallenoverboardfromthevessel.

In international news, the initial conict to

expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an

aerialandnavalbombardmenton17Januarythat

continued for ve weeks. It was followed by a

groundassaulton24Februaryandwasadecisive

victory for the coalition forces, who liberated

Kuwaitanddeclaredaceasere100hoursafter

the groundcampaign started.Aerial and ground

combatwasconnedtoIraq,Kuwaitandareason

SaudiArabia’sborder.

Another major story was the dissolution of

theSovietUnionon26December.Thiscreated

theCommonwealthofIndependentStates(CIS).

On the previous day, Soviet President Mikhail

Gorbachev resigned, declared his ofce extinct,

andhandedoveritspowers–includingcontrol

oftheSovietnuclearmissilelaunchingcodes–to

RussianPresidentBorisYeltsin.

FormerPrimeMinisterofIndia,RajivGandhi,

was killed by a suicide bomber at a public meeting

on 22 May; Bank of Credit and Commerce

International became the focus of a massive

regulatorybattlein1991,and,on5Julyofthatyear,

customsandbank regulatorsin seven countries

raided and locked down records of its branch

ofces.InJulytheboxerMikeTysonwasarrested

and charged with the rape of Miss Black America

contestantDesireeWashington.On6Augustthe

rstwebsite,inventedbyTimBerners-Lee,went

online.American journalistTerryAnderson was

releasedaftersevenyearsofcaptivityinBeiruton

4December.

In sport Mike Powell broke Bob Beamon’s

23-year-oldlongjumpworldrecordwithamark

of 29 feet 4½ inches which stands to this day;

LosAngeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson

announced that he had HIV, effectively ending

his NBA career, and Manchester United won the

EuropeanCupWinners’Cupwitha2–1winover

FCBarcelonainRotterdam.

Notable deaths included Freddie Mercury, lead

singerofQueen;MilesDavies,thejazzmusicianas

wellasRobertMaxwell,publisher.

As a result of the Gulf War and the loss of

London City Airways, passenger numbers fell

dramatically.BrymonAirwaysstruggledonwith

joint Air France services to Paris Charles de

Gaulle,LilleandStrasbourg.

SecretaryofStatefortheEnvironmentMichael

Heseltine approved London City Airport’s

expansionplans.

BusinessAir Centre commenced a short-lived

servicetoFrankfurtusingaBAe146.Itwasthe

endoftheirinterestintheairport.

Canary Wharf, at the time Europe’s tallest

building,wascompleted.

AmericanAirlines arrivedatHeathrowAirport

buying the TWA slots and Delta took over

muchofPanAm.USinboundpassengersmaking

for Europe were not even made aware of the

existenceofLondonCityAirport.

TheBAeJ41Jetstreamturbopropmadeitsrst

ightbutthe29-seaterwasreallytoosmallfor

London CityAirport and had no impact.The

much larger BAe 146 jet, capable of carrying

112passengers,wasapprovedforLondonCity

Airport; and Brymon Airways organised a high-

prolepressbriengtoannounceitsinterest.

British Air Ferries (later to become British

World Airlines) said it was coming into London

CityAirport,butitneverhappened.

Passengertotal172,000.

Passenger numbers were down by 25% on the previous year.

Number of ights 9,631, down 27%.

Above: The original rst oor landside brasserie.

Below: The river boat service from Charing Cross

proved very popular in spite of a short coach ride at the

airport end.

The Airport Timeline • 8382 • London City Airport

1992

Betty Boothroyd became the rst

woman elected Speaker of the House

of Commons.

QueenElizabeth described 1992asher annus

horribilis. It was the year when two of her

children, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew,

separated from their wives and, another,

Princess Anne, divorced. In addition to this

therewas amajorreatoneof her beloved

homes – Windsor Castle – with repairs costing

£36.5million.

Inpolitics,theConservativeParty,ledbyJohn

Major, narrowly won the General Election on

9AprilbeatingNeilKinnock’sLabourParty.On

27AprilBettyBoothroydbecametherstwoman

electedSpeakeroftheHouseofCommons.

Other British stories included the Freddie

Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS research on 20

April,whichwasheldatWembleyStadium.On

25October150,000minersmarchedinLondon

toprotestgovernmentplanstoclosemorethan

half of Britain’s coal mines, but the decision was

nal.On3DecembertherstSMSmessagewas

sent over theVodafone GSM network in the

UnitedKingdom.

Europe also featured strongly in the news.

On 7 February the Maastricht Treaty was

signed, creating the European Union and on

16 September or ‘Black Wednesday’, sterling

was forced out of the European Exchange Rate

Mechanism because the Bank of England was

unabletokeepitabovetheagreedlimit.

Racism hitAmerican headlines on 3 March

in Los Angeles when a passer-by videotaped

fourofcers surrounding Rodney King, a black

taxi driver, after a high-speed chase – several

of them striking him repeatedly whilst other

ofcersstoodby.Thevideowashandedintoa

local news station and shown around the world

and raised concern about the police treatment

ofminoritiesintheUnitedStates.Allfourwere

acquitted.Theacquittalsaregenerallyconsidered

tohavetriggeredthe1992LosAngelesriotsin

which55peoplewerekilledand2,000injured.

Beginning on 9 December about 25,000

United States forces were sent to Mogadishu,

Somalia as part of an effort to restore peace to

theregion.

Othernewsstoriesincluded theopening of

Euro Disney in Paris on 12 April and the end of

satirical British magazine Punch.It published its

nalissueafter150yearsduetofallingsalesand

subscriptions.

In sport the Barcelona Summer Olympic

Gameswereheld.SouthAfricawasallowedto

competeforthe rst time since 1960 and the

Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

contested the games, 1936 being their last

appearance.GreatBritainwonvegoldmedals

with Linford Christie (100 metres), Sally Gunnell

(women’s 400 metres hurdles), Chris Boardman

(cycling), the men’s coxless pairs in rowing with

Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave and the

SearlebrothersGregandJohnny,coxedbyGarry

Herber.

Famous people who died included Isaac

Asimov,author;BennyHillcomedian;Menachem

Begin, Prime Minister of Israel and recipient of

the Nobel Peace Prize; and Marlene Dietrich,

actress.

Passengertotal186,000.

Passenger numbers were down by 25% on the previous year.

Number of ights 9,631, down 27%.

5March:Diana,PrincessofWalesvisitedLondon

CityAirporttoopenthenewly-extendedrunway.

March:BAe 146jetightsbegan with therst

CrossairscheduledoperationtoZurich.Moritz

Suter, Managing Director of the Swiss airline,

wasverymuchafanofLondonCityAirportand

welcomedSirColinMarshall,ChiefExecutiveof

BritishAirways,onanearlyservice.

Away from the airport, but a more serious

casualty, was the collapse of Olympia &York

CanaryWharfLtdinMay.Therstbuildingswere

completedin1991,includingOneCanadaSquare,

which became the UK’s tallest building at that

dateandeventuallyasymboloftheregeneration

ofDocklands.Bythetimeitopened,theLondon

commercialpropertymarkethadcollapsed.

June:Bromma,theStockholmcitycentreairport,

became another London City Airport destination,

twoightsdailywithaMalmöAviationBAe146,

ying as Cityair Scandinavia. The airline’s UK

Director Robert Hardless came out strongly in

favouroftheproposedJubileeLineextensionto

CanaryWharf.

October: Mowlem announced its intention to

sellpartofitsstakeinLondonCityAirport.

German airline Conti-Flug introduced twice daily

BAe146servicestoBerlinTempelhof.(Laterin

the decade the famous city centre airport was to

close to make way for Berlin Brandenburg, which

atthetimeofwritingisstillnotopen.)

RotterdamstartswithFlexairandaDornier228.

Flight numbers continued to decline but the

actual throughput of passengers rose with the

arrivalofmoreBAe146aircraft.

Princess Diana ofcially opened the extended

runway and then departed in a No 32 (Royal)

Squadron BAe 146.

The Airport Timeline • 85

1993

Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk

jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize.

British news was dominated by the murders of

StephenLawrenceandJamieBulger.

On12FebruaryJamieBulger,atwo-year-old

boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, was murdered after

twoten-year-oldboys,RobertThompsonandJon

Venables,abductedhimfromashoppingcentre

inBootle.Theybecametheyoungestconvicted

murderersinmodernEnglishhistory.

On22AprilStephenLawrence,ablackman,

wasmurderedinaraciallymotivatedattackin

Plumsted, South London. Five suspects were

arrestedbutnotconvicted.Itwasoneofthe

highestproleracialkillingsinUnitedKingdom

history and its fallout included profound

cultural changes to attitudes on racism and

the police. (After reviewing the case it was

found that the Metropolitan Police Service

wasinstitutionallyracist.Almost20yearslater

twojuvenileswerefoundguiltyofLawrence’s

murder.)

In other British news, British Airways’

Lord King admitted liability and apologised

‘unreservedly’ for a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign

against Virgin Atlantic.  On 24 April the

Irish Republican Army detonated a truck in

Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London’s

nancialdistrict,killingoneperson,injuring44,

andcausing£350millionindamages.

Relations between Iraq and the United

Statesdeterioratedin1993.TheUnitedStates

accusedSaddamHussein,thePresidentofIraq,

of moving missiles into southern Iraq. Allied

planes and ships destroyed the missile sites, as

wellasanuclearfacilityoutside Baghdad.The

United States learned of a plot to assassinate

the former US President, George Bush, and in

response, US ships attacked Iraqi intelligence

headquartersinBaghdad.

Notable events included a terrorist attack

on the World Trade Centre, New York – a

truck bomb detonated below the North Tower,

killingsixpeopleandinjuringoverathousand

more; the Oslo Accord was signed between

the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)

leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister

YitzhakRabin.

NelsonMandelaandF.W.deKlerkjointlywon

the Nobel Peace Prize; the Waco Siege in Texas,

which started on 28 February, saw 76 people die

after a 51-day stand-off between American forces

and Branch Davidians who were suspected of

weapon violations; the North American Free

Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed on

8 December between the United States, Canada

andMexico. ThelmJurassic Park was the big hit

–ittoppedtheboxofcechartsbutdidpoorly

intheOscars–Schindler’s List, the holocaust epic,

wasalsoreleased.

In sport the 1993 FA Cup nal between

Arsenal and Shefeld Wednesday atWembley

nished1–1withtheGunnerswinningthereplay

2–1 after extra-time. They became the rst

English side to achievea domestic cup double,

havingalsowonthe1993FootballLeagueCup

nal.TheEnglishPremierLeaguewascreatedthe

previousyear,withManchesterUnitedbecoming

therstwinners.

Famous people who died in 1993 included

Audrey Hepburn, actress; Ferruccio Lamborghini,

founder of the car company; Bobby Moore,

footballer;andWilliamGolding,author.

Passengertotal245,000.

Passenger increase of 30% on the previous year.

Number of ights 11,663, up 14%.

March: Brymon Airways left London City Airport

following a management sale giving 100%

ownershiptoBritishAirways.Itsvaluewasupto

vepairsofslotsitheldatHeathrow.

The Limehouse Link and other Docklands

highwaysopenedfortrafc.

End of the Riverbus service.The problem was

that it did not reach the airport, the King George

V Dock only accessible via a lock. (For the

2012OlympicGamestwocruiseshipsmoored

oppositetheairporttoserveasoatinghotels.)

Charles Stuart, the much respected Chief

ExecutiveofBrymonAirwayswhentheairport

opened, passed away suddenly (aged 64). At

one time with British Rail, Stuart had instigated

the British Airways shuttle and was an elegant

spokesman for the airportduringitsgestation.

His contacts at British Airways gained the airport

supportbythenationalcarrier.

April:Conti-FlugextendeditsBerlinserviceto

Venice.

A three times per hour bus service was

introduced between the airport, Canary Wharf

andLiverpoolStreetstation.

October: Canary Wharf emerged from

administration.

AlsoinOctoberanewairlineVLMarrivedatthe

airportwithaservicetoAntwerp.(Takenover

byAirFrancein2007itwaspartofCityJetuntil

2014.)

November:Conti-Flugannouncedthatitwould

start services to Hamburg, Riga andVilnius. It

never happened, the airline folding during the

FarnboroughAirShow1994.

Early days – then a choice of stations.

The Airport Timeline • 8786 • London City Airport

The Channel Tunnel opened – French

President François Mitterrand and the

Queen.

In February British police began excavations at

25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, the home of Fred

andRosemaryWest.TheWestswereaccusedof

multiple murders and it was found that sexual

assault, torture, as well as dismembering of bodies

hadtakenplace.Remainsofsomeofthebodies

were found in their cellar and garden, leading the

mediatocalltheirhomethe‘HouseofHorrors’.

Fred West was later found guilty of at least 12

murdersandRose10,althoughtheactualgures

aresuspectedtobemuchhigher.

In other British news, on 26 January a man

redtwoblankshotsatPrinceCharlesinSydney,

Australia;on13JunetheChannelTunnelopened

and with it the introduction of train travel

between London and both Brussels and Paris; the

Sunday Trading Act 1994 came into full effect on

5July,permittingretailerstotradeonSundays;

Tony Blair gained the Labour Party leadership after

an election and the Camelot Group consortium

won the contract to run the United Kingdom’s

rstNationalLotterywiththeinitialdrawtaking

placeon19November.

It was also the year that the Irish and

British Governments announced the end of a

15-yearbroadcastingbanontheProvisionalIrish

Republican Army and its political arm Sinn Fein

meaningthattherealvoicesofJeremyAdamsand

his comrades could be heard by audiences for the

rsttime.

In international news O. J. Simpson, the

American football player, was arrested for

the murders of his ex-wife and her friend on

13 June.  He was later acquitted but in 1997

was convicted of numerousfelonies, including

armed robbery and kidnapping.The case has

been described as the most publicized criminal

trialinAmericanhistory.

In other international news, on 27 April Nelson

Mandela was inaugurated as SouthAfrica’s rst

blackPresident;on25JulyIsraelandJordansigned

the Washington Declaration peace treaty which

settled relations between the two countries,

adjusted land and water disputes, and provided

for broad cooperation in tourism and trade; and

on 11 December Russian President Boris Yeltsin

orderedtroopsintoChechnya.

Two major worldsporting eventstook place

– theWinter Olympics in Lillehammer and the

FIFAWorldCuphostedbytheUnitedStates.In

theOlympics,JayneTorvillandChristopherDean

wonacontroversialbronzemedaliniceskating

forTeamGB.IntheWorldCup,BrazilbeatItaly

by3–2inpenalties.Englandfailedtoqualifyforthe

competition.ItwasalsotheyearthatManchester

UnitedachievedaLeagueandCupdouble.

There were many notable deaths including,

Richard Nixon, President of the United States;

JohnSmith,leaderoftheLabourParty;SirMatt

Busby, Manchester United football manager;

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the

UnitedStatesandAyrtonSenna,F1racingdriver,

killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand

PrixinImola,Italy.

1994

Passengertotal480,000.

Passenger increase of 96% on the previous year.

Number of ights 16,845, up 48%.

The airport was now into a steady period of

growth.

Passenger numbers nearly doubled over the

previousyearwithairlinestryingnewroutesand

the word getting around that the airport had a

lottooffer.CrossairintroducedGeneva.

11 January: Richard Branson turned up at the

airporttowelcometheinauguralVirginCityJet

ightfromDublin.OnboardwasCityJetCEO

PatByrne.

CityJet arrived from Dublin with a BAe 146,

initially in partnership with Virgin Atlantic

Airways. This relationship quickly oundered.

(CityJethasbeenastalwartoftheairportever

since and is now (2017) back with the original

owners and under the chairmanship of Pat Byrne,

thefoundingChiefExecutive.)

5 July: The SundayTrading Act comes into full

effect, permitting retailers to trade on Sundays.

The planning restrictions for the airport do not

allow landings or take-offs between the hours of

06:30and12:30onaSaturday

and 12:30 and 22:00 on a

Sunday unless an emergency.

(This remains in force, although

for practical reasons the doors

of the terminal actually open to

thepublicat11:00onSundays.)

14 November: The start of

a new rail service – Eurostar

– linking London’s Waterloo

station with Brussels (and

Paris) in only just over two

hours, made the air service

toBrusselsunviable.(Therail

journey is now under two

hours but from St Pancras.

Paris ights continued until

2017.) London City Airport

is now the only UK departure

point for Paris Orly, which

serves the Left Bank and is

some way from Gare du Nord

theterminalfromLondon.

Virgin had a short-lived relationship

with CityJet who repainted a

BAe 146.

The Airport Timeline • 89

Fred Perry (right) died – he won

Wimbledon three times 1934–1936

(seen here with Bunny Austin).

This was the year the United Kingdom’s oldest

investment banking rm – Barings Bank –

collapsed after securities broker Nick Leeson

lost $1.4 billion by speculating on theTokyo

StockExchange.HewasarrestedinFrankfurt

and extradited to Singapore and later sentenced

tosixandahalfyearsinprison.

OthernewsincludedJohnMajorresignation

as leader of the Conservative Party on

22Juneinordertotriggeraleadershipbattle

sothathecouldfacethecriticsofhisParty.He

wasre-electedon4Julybeatingtheonlyother

candidate, former Secretary of State for Wales,

John Redwood. On 20 November Princess

Dianagavea revealingtelevisioninterviewon

BBCOne’sPanorama show where she candidly

discussedheradultery,depressionandbulimia.

1995wastherstyearthatBritishsoldiers

were not patrolling the streets in Belfast since

1969.

In Europe, Austria, Finland and Sweden

joinedtheEuropeanUnionandJacquesChirac

waselectedPresidentofFrance.TheSchengen

Agreement, which invoked a European-wide

passport free area, came into effect between all

countries in the European Union excluding the

UnitedKingdomandIreland.

The biggest news story of the year in the

UnitedStateswastheOklahomaCitybombing.

On 19AprilTimothy McVeigh murdered 168

people, including 8 federal marshals and 19

children;680peoplewerealsowounded.McVeigh

was motivated by the Federal Government’s

handling of the Waco siege and the bombing

coincided with the second anniversary of

the deadly re that ended the siege. Found

guiltyof11FederaloffencesMcVeighwaslater

executed by lethal injection. Terry Nichols

and Michael Fortier were also convicted as

conspiratorsintheplot.

Onthewiderinternationalstage,theWorld

TradeOrganization(WTO)wasestablishedon

1JanuarytoreplacetheGeneralAgreementon

TariffsandTrade(GATT).

In July, the worst crime on European soil

since World War II took place in and around

the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.  It was

perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army

ofRepublikaSrpska(VRS)underthecommand

of General Ratko Mladić, together with the

Scorpions, a paramilitary unit, participating in

the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniak men

and boys together with the forcible transfer and

abuse of between25,000 and 30,000 Bosniak

women, children and elderly. The besieged

enclaveofSrebrenicahadbeendeclareda‘safe

area’under United Nations ProtectionForce.

HoweverUNPROFOR’s370Dutchbatsoldiers

failedtopreventthetown’scapturebytheVRS.

The United Nations tribunal on human rights

charged up to 60 Bosnian Serb commanders

withgenocideandcrimesagainsthumanity.

In football the UEFA Champions League was

won by AFC Ajax when they beat AC Milan 1–0

attheErnstHappelStadiuminVienna.Itwillalso

be remembered as the year that Eric Catona,

of Manchester United, infamously ‘Kung Fu’

attackedafootballfanatCrystalPalace.Catona

received an eight month ban from playing

footballcompetitively.Inrugby,SouthAfrica,the

hosts of the World Cup won the competition

whentheybeatNewZealand15–12.Inboxing

FrankBrunowontheWBCworldheavyweight

championshipafterdefeatingOliverMcCallata

packedWembleyStadium.

Famous people that died included Fred Perry,

tennischampion;KennyEverett,comedian;Lord

(Harold) Wilson and Lord Hume (Alex Douglas-

Hume), Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom;

EvaGabor,actress;andPaulEddington,actor.

1995

Passengertotal555,946.

Passenger increase of 15% on the previous year.

Number of ights 18,562, up 16%.

March:JonHornepromotedtoAirportDirector

onatemporarybasis,BillCharnockdeparting.

The airport introduced the rst ticketless air

travelintheUKandAirJetwaslaunchedonthe

Paris Charles de Gaulle route with a prepaid ‘jet

card’ system which also eliminated multi-folio

papertickets.Theairlinedidnotlastlong.

Carriers came and went and 12 points

were served. These included City Air Bus to

Humberside Airport (south of Hull) with four

ights. It ew for just a few weeks with the

company going into liquidation. Air Engiadina

was to become another short-lived airline to

Bern, but the route remains to this day operated

overtheyearsbyseveraldifferentcarriers.

Interot arrived with a Dash 8 fromAugsburg.

Starting off as a company aircraft owner using

two Beech aircraft in support of its printing paper

manufacture, Interot later became Augsburg

AirwaysoperatingallfourversionsoftheDash8

and Embraers as ‘Team Lufthansa’, until Lufthansa

pulledtheplugin2013.

Sir Philip Beck retired as Chairman of John

Mowlem&CoPlc,thedeveloperofLondonCity

Airport, and just a few weeks later the airport

was sold to Irish businessman Dermot Desmond

forareputed£23.5million.

Left: At one time VLM operated up to 20 Fokker 50s.

Below left: Interot was predecessor to Augusburg Airways.

The Airport Timeline • 91

Germany won the European

Championship with England’s Alan

Shearer the top scorer.

The year was marked with Irish Republican Army

terroristactivity.TheIRAendedtheirceasereon

9FebruarywhenabombnearSouthQuaystation

in the Canary Wharf, London, exploded.  Two

people were killed and £150 million of damage

caused. A few weeks later on 18 February a

further IRA bomb killed one person and injured

anotherintheWest EndofLondon.On7June

anIRAgangkilledDetectiveGardaJerryMcCabe

during a botched armed robbery in Adare, County

Limerick.InManchesteron15Juneatruckbomb

detonated in the city centre causing over 200

injuriesbutnofatalities.Itwasthebiggestbomb

detonated in Great Britain since World War II

causingdamageestimatedat£700million.Finally

on 13 July a bomb exploded outside a hotel in

Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, disrupting a wedding

receptionandinjuring17people.

In a deadly attack of a different nature, gunman

Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and one

teacheron13MarchatDunblanePrimarySchool

nearStirling,Scotland,beforekillinghimself.The

attack, which became known as the Dunblane

School Massacre, was the deadliest mass shooting

in the United Kingdom’s history. Public debate

about the killings centred on gun control laws,

including public petitions calling for a ban on

privateownershipofhandguns.Inresponsetothis

debate,twonewrearmsactswerepassed,which

greatlyrestrictedprivateownershipofrearmsin

GreatBritain.

On20MarchtheUKGovernmentannounced

that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also

known as BSE or mad cow disease, had likely been

transmittedtohumans.ThisledtotheEuropean

Union banning exports of British beef, a ban

whichlasted tenyears. Estimatessuggested that

from 1986–1998 more than 180,000 cattle were

infectedand4.4millionwereslaughteredduring

theeradicationprogramme.

The Scott Report was published, in effect a

judicialinquiryinvestigatingarmssalestoIraq.The

examination, conducted by Sir Richard Scott, then

a Lord Justice ofAppeal, was partially redacted

andneverpublishedinfull.

In the United States the First Lady Hillary

Clintontestiedbeforeagrandjuryforherrole

intheWhitewaterScandal.Althoughneithershe

norherhusbandPresidentBillClintonwereever

charged with any crime, the scandal about their

involvement in the Whitewater Development

Corporation, a failed business venture into real

estateinvestments,puttheClintons’reputationat

risk.Fourteenpeoplewerelaterconvicted.

Alsoin1996theSiegeofSarajevoended,having

lasted 1,425 days. The Serbs nally withdrew

theirblockageleavingthecityinthehandsofthe

Croatians.

Football ‘came home’ when England hosted

Euro1996.Thesongchosenforthetournament

was Three Lions by the Lightning Seeds, with music

by the band’s Ian Broudie and lyrics by comedians

DavidBaddielandFrankSkinner.Englandreached

thesemi-nalsbutwerebeatenbyGermanywho

went on to beat the Czech Republic 2–1 in the

nal.

TheSummerOlympicsalsotookplace.They

were held in Atlanta, United States, with

MohammedAlidramaticallylightingtheOlympic

ame whilst clearly suffering from Parkinson’s

disease. Britain won a single gold medal, once

again the reliable pairing of Matthew Pinsent and

SteveRedgraveintheMen’sCoxlessPair.

Famous people that died included François

Mitterrand, President of France; Gene Kelly, actor

and dancer; Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer; and P. L.

Travers, who was best known as the author of

Mary Poppins.

1996

Passengertotal726,000.

Passenger increase of 41% on the previous year.

Number of ights 27,059, up 31%.

Amongthevisitingaircraftduringtheyearwasa

Royal Air Force Hercules transport carrying the

Band of the RAF Regiment which played on the

apron.ASpitrewasanothernewtypetoland.

Appointment of new London City Airport

Chairman,RayMacSharry.

RichardGooding,previouslyManagingDirector

of Luton Airport, was appointed Managing

Director.

World Airlines came on the Amsterdam route

andquicklywentbust.

A new baggage screening system, said to be as

good as anywhere in the world, was installed at a

costofover£1million.

Also good news was the growth in passenger

numbersto4,000aday.

The two routes to Paris were not that far

apart in terms of numbers, Charles de Gaulle

at43,000andOrly34,000.AirFrancedecided

that the south Paris airport made more sense for

business travellersthan CDG and closed what

was London City Airport’s original international

route.Incomparison150,000usedDublin.

By this time, the Netherlands had also begun to

take an interest in the airport, Rotterdam with

75,000 and the newly reconstituted Amsterdam

CityJetservice48,000.Frankfurtgrewby10%to

47,000.NewwereEdinburghandEindhoven.

March: Fokker Aircraft based at Amsterdam

Schiphol Airport nally went bankrupt and

ceased manufacturing the F-50 (turboprop) and

F-70 and F-100 (jet turbine).This followed the

withdrawal of DASA (Daimler-Benz) from the

partnership. This had no immediate effect on

Amsterdam as one of Europe’s largest scheduled

airports but it meant an uncertain future for the

Fokkeroperators.Thanks,however,tosubsidiary

Fokkercompaniesnotaffectedbytheupheaval,

more than 20 years on Fokker passenger aircraft

arestillinairlineservicein2017.

Richard Gooding (left) seen here with Reg Ward and

TfL’s Ian Brown at a 2007 ceremony to unveil a plaque

for Harry Gee’s rst landing at Heron Quays.

The Airport Timeline • 93

Floral tributes to Princess Diana.

On 31 August the world was in mourning

following the tragic untimely death of Princess

Diana, in the well-documented car accident in the

Pontdel’AlmaroadtunnelinParis.DodiFayed,

herboyfriend,togetherwithHenriPaul,thedriver,

alsodied.

Around one million mourners lined the

streets of London for the funeral at Westminster

Abbey. Worldwide coverage was