Yahoo Finance City Airport profits skid as passenger numbers dip
Annual profits at London City Airport slid more than 10pc as the number of flights from the business-friendly hub dipped.
Accounts filed with Companies House revealed a fall in turnover from £113.7m to £112.0m in the year to December 2017. Net profit before tax fell to £35.7m and, following a £2m increased tax charge, profit for the year slipped from £32.0m to £28.5m.
After experiencing several successive years of solid passenger growth, the number of people using in the airport fell 0.3pc to 4.5 million. And the number of aircraft movements were 5.8pc lower at 75,781.
Some 56pc of those using London City are business travellers and it claims to be the most punctual airport in the UK - it achieved an 81pc on-time performance rate in 2017.
It is the 14th busiest UK airport and the fifth most popular in London after Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton.
Last October work started on the £480m City Airport Development Programme. Once completed the airport will be able to process up to 6.5 million passengers a year and operate 111,000 flights annually. Capital expenditure in 2017 was £20.4m, more than the total during the prior two years put together. The airport said its overhaul would generate 1,600 new jobs, delivering an annual economic benefit of £1.5bn.
Initiatives to reduce aircraft bird strikes also appeared to be paying dividends. There were 2.49 incidents of planes being hit every 10,000, compared with 3.95 in 2016.
First proposed in 1981, commercial flights started at London City in 1987. It was sold to a consortium including insurance giant AIG and Global Infrastructure Partners in 2006.
London City was then bought in 2016 by a quartet of infrastructure investors: OMERS, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Wren House Infrastructure Management and Alberta Investment Management Corporation.
