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First we stop London City Airport, then Heathrow
For the environment, runway expansion and the aviation industry as a whole must be confronted - and financiers' favourite London City Airport is the best place to start, writes IAN SINCLAIR

ON a muggy evening last month over 100 people attended a public meeting in a school hall in Wanstead, east London to hear about the proposed expansion of London City Airport.

Opened in 1987, the airport primarily services business travellers and the City, handling approximately 80,000 flights and 4.8 million passengers in 2018 (there is an annual cap of 111,000 flights).
The airport’s new master plan proposes a maximum of 151,000 flights and 11 million passengers a year by 2035, and more flights early in the morning and late at night (night flights are not allowed). In addition the airport proposes dropping the weekend break that is currently in place for residents living under the airport’s flight paths — there are no flights from 12.30 on Saturdays to 12.30 on Sundays.

These would be “modest changes,” said Sean Bashforth, Director of Quod, the airport’s planning advisers since 2006. “We are committing to no noisier aircraft than fly at the moment.”

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