Article from BTNews 29 JUNE 2020
KLM and BA
KLM Cityhoppers’s flagship route between Amsterdam Schiphol and London City Airport (LCY) returns 13 July.
Easily the most popular destination from LCY and worth in excess of 630,000 passengers last year with KLM, British Airways Cityflyer (BACF) and Flybe the three operators.
As things stand the national Dutch carrier, part of the Air France-KLM group, will have the route to itself for the immediate future.
One hundred seat Embraer 190 aircraft will be used with a two-class layout.
Initially daily the 65min flight leaves Amsterdam 10:15 with ETA at LCY 10:20 with the return 10:50/13:00. All times local.
KLM’s UK programme is gradually returning to an abridged form.
In July, KLM will offer two daily flights from Heathrow and Manchester, plus daily departures from: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds Bradford, London City, Newcastle and Norwich. KLM ceased operations from Southampton before the crisis.
At this time British Airways has made no announcement regarding its services from LCY to Amsterdam (nor any other route) but has posted a schedule on the OAG website (see below).
BA CityFlyer last week resumed regular scheduled passenger service, followed by the re-opening of London City Airport. For July the airline is scheduling 112 departures from LCY on nine routes, compared to 32 routes with 1,897 departures initially planned. All flights will use the 98-seat Embraer 190 aircraft, the 76-seat 170 series seemingly grounded.
| From London City | Start Date | Frequency | Aircraft Type |
| Dublin | 20 July | 5 weekly | E190 |
| Edinburgh | 20 July | 5 weekly | E190 |
| Florence | 10 July | 3 weekly | E190 |
| Glasgow | 20 July | 5 weekly | E190 |
| Ibiza | 10 July | 1 daily | E190 |
| Isle of Man | 21 June | 6 weekly | ATR42 (Loganair aircraft) |
| Malaga | 10 July | 3 weekly | E190 |
| Manchester | 31 July | 2 flights | E190 |
| Palma Mallorca | 10 July | 3 weekly | E190 |
www.ba.com
www.klm.com
www.londoncityairport.com
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum
Andy Aim, BOSCOMBE
Providing the owners don’t panic ,the modest and cheap expansion of Southampton makes sense and will take holiday flights away from Bournemouth. Southampton Airport serves a major port whilst sadly Hurn will never be more than an industrial airport ideal for servicing and aircraft parking. It’s in the wrong place. It would make for a good home for Bournemouth Football Club.
Richard Phillips, Medstead, ALTON
The ambitious expansion plans for Southampton airport, with an increased runway length of 170 metres announced in September 2018 seem unlikely. Surely, now may be the time to look at expanding Bournemouth airport (runway length 2271 metres) and perhaps turning SOU airport (runway length 1723 metres) into a massive, modern industrial complex ? Is there a need for two International airports in this southern area ?
Andy Aim, Boscombe Dorset
Someone please come in and help Southampton. We’ve lost Flybe and I gather KLM will not be back. Exeter is dead, Bournemouth is just holiday flights and its too far to Bristol, Gatwick or Heathrow.