London City Airport is looking to expand its routes to the Iberian peninsula and eastern Germany.
Head of business development Charles Buchanan said several carriers are interested in launching longer routes from the Docklands airport, but he declined to reveal names.
“We have a large number of cross-channel routes but what we would like to do is to cast the net wider,” he said.
Currently the majority of international flights from City are between one and 1hr-1hr 30mins.
The airport recently announced a number of additional domestic routes.
Suckling Airways has taken over the Glasgow route from KLM UK, and BA franchisee British Regional Airways will start flights three times a day to Sheffield later in the year. VLM will launch flights to Jersey on April 26 and Suckling is launching a service to Dundee on April 12.
The airport is also working with upmarket ski operators like Powder Byrne and Flexi Ski to raise awareness of it as a departure point for weekend ski packages.
Buchanan said: “We would like to deepen our relationships with ski operators and broaden knowledge of City Airport.”
Last year City received permission to increase the number of annual flights from 36,000 to 73,000, which now gives carriers the opportunity to add more midday flights to attract the leisure market.
The early arrivals and late departures, which generally attract higher fares, are aimed at business travellers. City Airport has a 10min check-in time which is of special interest to business people flying from London for a one-day meeting. But Buchanan believes that more flights during the day is likely to bring in extra leisure users.
Last year’s ú750,000 upgrade of the main lounge, including leather armchairs and more retail outlets, is to be followed by renovation of the arrivals hall later this year. A covered walkway to the car park is also being built.
Other improvements include the launch of a new shuttle bus to Canning Town. The shuttle will run every five minutes. Planning permission has been sought for an extension to the Docklands Light Railway which would give City Airport its own station within four years. Currently most of the airport’s business users arrive by taxi, although there is a shuttle bus linking up with the DLR at Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street Station.
Meanwhile passenger numbers continue to grow, with monthly figures of 101,000 in January and 107,000 in February, a rise of 6% on the previous year.
City opened in 1992 and had 200,000 passengers in its first year. It has expanded with a 600% growth over the last six years. More than 1.3m passengers used the airport last year and November 1998 saw a record monthly number of passengers, 125, 585.