In message , Sir Benjamin Nunn
writes

Or almost anywhere on the London Bridge / Victoria / Clapham Junction lines.
or Tramlink.

London Bridge to Gatwick is 29 minutes.

London Bridge to LCY will be 24 minutes (allowing 5 minutes for the
change at Canning Town).

Obviously, if you are nearer to a Brighton-line station then Gatwick
will be the better option.

And thus is vastly more useful for people who are visiting London (and
tending to stay in the centre) rather than those who already live here and
are travelling to Europe.

It depends entirely on where such people live. If they live near Luton,
Stansted or Heathrow, any of those are likely to be a better option than
London City or Gatwick.

People who work in the City commute from a vast range of different places
from all directions, varied distances and travelling times from the centre,
and an airport 22 minutes East of Bank is therefore only of convenience to a
limited subset of them.

Exactly. That's why London has 5 airports - to cater for as many subsets
as possible. LCY will get increasingly better connected (even to South
London) in a few years time, when the branch is extended south to
Woolwich Arsenal and north to Stratford International. Even more so when
Crossrail is built.

If City Airport was actually 22 minutes West of Holborn, 22 minutes North of
Euston, or 22 minutes South of Embankment, the impact on visitors to Central
London would be minimal, but the subset of Londoners that the airport
happened to benefit would be significantly different.

But its not, is it? I can't really see what your point is, other than
the obvious one that different airports are closer to different groups
of people in the London area.

--
Paul Terry

"Paul Terry" wrote in message
...

Obviously, if you are nearer to a Brighton-line station then Gatwick
will be the better option.

Unless you want to go to Paris, in which case forget about Gatwick!

In message , Paul Terry
writes
But its not, is it? I can't really see what your point is, other than
the obvious one that different airports are closer to different groups
of people in the London area.
LCY will never be a major player because it's planes need a 6% approach
as opposed to the 3% of all other major airports.
--
Clive

Clive wrote in
:

In message , Paul Terry
writes
But its not, is it? I can't really see what your point is, other than
the obvious one that different airports are closer to different
groups of people in the London area.
LCY will never be a major player because it's planes need a 6%
approach as opposed to the 3% of all other major airports.

When you say "6% approach" are you referring to the rate of descent -
normally 300 feet/mile? I can imagine Canary Wharf and all the other tower
blocks of central London having a pretty serious effect for approach from
the west or departure to the west, but I presume approach/departure in the
other direction is much less restricted.

Would a steep descent/take-off be enough to restrict the usage of an airport
or would it just make life more "interesting" for pilots?

Presumably the big attraction of LCY is the short journey time to central
London in relation to the train fa LHR and LGW have similar journey times
but much much higher fares by Heathrow/Gatwick Express, or else much longer
journey times if you take the Piccadily line from Heathrow or the stopping
service from Gatwick so as to avoid being ripped off by the Express fares.

In message , Vernon writes

Unless you want to go to Paris, in which case forget about Gatwick!

Some decades ago there used to be a wonderful "hedge-hopper" service
from Gatwick to Le Touquet (twin-engined prop, as I recall, which hardly
had time to rise more than a few thousand feet before beginning the
descent). It was met by a train on the tarmac at Le Touquet that sped to
Paris, with only a brief stop at Amiens. It was the bee's knees in terms
of speed and low cost in those days - probably faster than anything
available today, given the almost instantaneous check-in and go.

--
Paul Terry

Martin Underwood wrote:
Clive wrote in
:

In message , Paul Terry
writes
But its not, is it? I can't really see what your point is, other
than the obvious one that different airports are closer to
different groups of people in the London area.
LCY will never be a major player because it's planes need a 6%
approach as opposed to the 3% of all other major airports.

When you say "6% approach" are you referring to the rate of descent
- normally 300 feet/mile? I can imagine Canary Wharf and all the
other tower blocks of central London having a pretty serious effect
for approach from the west or departure to the west, but I presume
approach/departure in the other direction is much less restricted.

It's actually 5.5% glide slope compared to 3% at most airports, and it
applies in both directions. It's largely for noise abatement reasons.

Would a steep descent/take-off be enough to restrict the usage of
an airport or would it just make life more "interesting" for pilots?

The main factors restricting the use of the airport are the noise
limits, which severely restrict the aircraft types that may be used,
also runway length (only 1319 metres compared to, say, Luton at 2160 m),
and limits on operating hours and numbers of movements imposed by the
local planning authority (L.B. of Newham).
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 11:34:56 -0000, "Ian F."
wrote:

Heh! No, but it would take me 30 mins to get to Bank and then another,
allegedly, 22 to get to LC. I can get to Gatwick by overground train in
about 30 minutes.

So you live nearer to Gatwick than to LC. Is this of general
interest?

"Paul Terry" wrote in message
...
In message , Vernon writes

Unless you want to go to Paris, in which case forget about Gatwick!

Some decades ago there used to be a wonderful "hedge-hopper" service
from Gatwick to Le Touquet (twin-engined prop, as I recall, which hardly
had time to rise more than a few thousand feet before beginning the
descent). It was met by a train on the tarmac at Le Touquet that sped to
Paris, with only a brief stop at Amiens. It was the bee's knees in terms
of speed and low cost in those days - probably faster than anything
available today, given the almost instantaneous check-in and go.

"Anything" now equals "nothing"! No service to Paris.

In article , Paul Terry
writes
Unless you want to go to Paris, in which case forget about Gatwick!

Some decades ago there used to be a wonderful "hedge-hopper" service
from Gatwick to Le Touquet (twin-engined prop, as I recall, which
hardly had time to rise more than a few thousand feet before beginning
the descent). It was met by a train on the tarmac at Le Touquet that
sped to Paris, with only a brief stop at Amiens. It was the bee's knees
in terms of speed and low cost in those days

The Carvairs from Southend to Le Touquet were also met by these trains
for those passengers without their cars.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
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