- ITA Airways launch triple-daily flights from London City Airport to Milan Linate Airport, with first service landing at London City at 8.25 on March 28th
- The Italian airline is the first new carrier to operate from the London hub since the Covid-19 pandemic struck
- Route reconnects two major European cities for both business and leisure passengers
- Gelato from La Gelatiera served to passengers throughout the day
London, UK, 2022-Mar-30 — /Travel PR News/ — London City Airport (LCY) today (29/03/2022) welcomes the return of flights to Milan Linate as the city-centre hub seizes on pent-up demand from business and leisure travellers to revitalise its short-haul connections.
ITA Airways, the Italian flag-carrier, is the first new airline to fly from London City since the pandemic and is now operating a triple-daily service (18 weekly) from LCY to Milan Linate Airport.
The route cements tourist and business links between two of Europe’s primary financial hubs and is used by a number of business travellers and large corporations including JP Morgan, Barclays and Credit Suisse.
Milan is also a popular destination for leisure passengers due to its wide variety of cultural and historical tourist attractions, including the San Siro football stadium and the Duomo di Milano.
The re-opening of one of the most popular routes of 2019, before the pandemic struck, is London City’s latest show of confidence in the resilience of its key leisure and business network and the services to Milan-Linate are complimented by the British Airways daily service to Milan-Malpensa airport.
The airport is reinstating all 15 of its top-performing pre-pandemic routes. Barcelona will return to the network for the first time in almost a decade, while new routes such as Thessaloniki join established summer favourites like Split, Mykonos and Faro for summer 2022.
The latest figures indicate that London City Airport is on track to have its busiest month since the pandemic began, welcoming another post COVID record of 44,000 passengers last week, and with passenger traffic up 40% on February’s figures in March.
The upturn in confidence at the airport reflects the easing of travel restrictions and the proactive role LCY has played to work with and support its airline partners as the industry continues to bounce back from the effects of the pandemic.
London City Airport Head of Aviation, Anne Doyere, said: “At its peak, this route served 360,000 passengers per year and was one our top 5 performers, so its return is a significant moment in our recovery.
We are also delighted to welcome ITA to the airport. We believe this can be the start of a very successful relationship and hopefully, over time, we can work together to add more rotations on Linate.”
To celebrate the start of the service, the airport welcomed La Gelatiera, renown for serving the best artisan gelato in the capital, and passengers got to have their pick of vanilla, chocolate, pistachio sorbet, lemon sorbet flavours before jetting off.
Notes to Editors:
– Flights will be departing from Linate at 07:00; 12:20 and 17:40 and from London City at 08:25; 13:45 and 19:05 for a total of 18 round-trip flights a week.
– London City will connect to 36 Domestic and European destinations this summer.
Contact:
Liam McKay
Director of Corporate Affairs
liam.mckay@londoncityairport.com/ 07545439073
Source: London City Airport
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