London City Airport has announced a ‘temporary pause’ to its development programme while Ryanair has cut capacity in the autumn by nearly a fifth.
The airport said that although there has been a return to flying over the summer, the recovery of the UK aviation market has been slower than expected with demand well below normal levels and it has become 'clearer that the recovery to previous levels will take longer than initially expected'.
Last month it said the return of flights between to and from Frankfurt was evidence that 'recovery momentum' was building.
CEO Robert Sinclair said: ‘Given our location in the heart of London, and the resilient nature of aviation, the airport and our shareholders remain very confident about the long-term prospects of London City and the vital role we can play in re-connecting London and the British economy as we recover from the shock of COVID-19.’
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, announced that it would reduce its flight capacity by 20% during September and October ‘as forward bookings have notably weakened over the last 10 days, given continuing uncertainty over recent Covid case rates in some EU countries’.
The firm said that most of the cuts would be frequency reductions rather than route closures, and heavily focused on countries such as Spain, France and Sweden, where rising recent Covid case rates have led to increased travel restrictions, as well as Ireland, ‘which continues to impose a uniquely restrictive Green List’.
A spokesperson said: ‘Over the past two weeks as a number of EU countries have raised travel restrictions, forward bookings especially for business travel into September and October have been negatively affected, and it makes sense to reduce frequencies so that we tailor our capacity to demand over the next two months.
‘Proper testing at airports, and effective tracing (as is being conducted in Germany and Italy) is the only realistic and proportionate method of supervising safe intra-EU air travel while effectively limiting the spread of the COVID-19 virus.’
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