British Airways (BA) is looking to increase flights to London City airport from Scotland, The Scotsman has reported.
Starting this summer, the airline will increase services from Edinburgh from eight to ten a day, with more expected from Glasgow. The move comes after rival, CityJet, cut the route, and BA became the largest airline at the Docklands airport.
BA executive chairman, Keith Williams, said the expansion would increase BA’s daily Scotland-London flights to 57. One in 25 of the airline’s total London passengers are on Scottish routes.
Mr Williams said: ‘London City is the business area of London and has become quite a big operation, where we are now the largest player. If the demand is there, we will equally fly more from Glasgow too.’
BA also flies from Aberdeen to London City, from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Gatwick, and from all three Scottish airports to Heathrow.
Mr Williams was in Scotland to mark completion of work on the 500th Airbus aircraft at its maintenance base at Glasgow Airport, and to open a new GBP1.5 million executive lounge at Edinburgh Airport, the report added.
The base is operating at full capacity and the hangar looks after 40 percent of the BA fleet. Each of the 112 aircraft are brought in for major servicing every 18 months, which involves up to 12 days’ work, including stripping down the cabin, engines and other parts.
Mr Williams said: ‘It is testimony to the expertise, professionalism and dedication of everyone at British Airways Maintenance Glasgow (BAMG) – past and present – that, after almost half a century, they continue to play a vital role in engineering at British Airways.
‘The safety, security and technical integrity of our aircraft are of paramount importance to British Airways, and the engineering function, including the work carried out at BAMG, is central to that principle.’
Tom Williams, Airbus’s vice president, programmes, said: ‘The 500th of British Airways’ fleet of single-aisle Airbus aircraft is a significant milestone and demonstrates the important role of the A320 family as the backbone of the company’s short and medium range fleet.’
Edinburgh Airport chief executive, Gordon Dewar, said: ‘The opening of this fantastic new lounge marks the single biggest investment by British Airways in a Scottish airport.’
BA’s Edinburgh lounge has been almost doubled in size to 730 square metres. The lounge was designed by Glasgow-based Graven Images and features artworks from Edinburgh School of Art.
