The aviation industry is the grooming industry within the world and all the activities associated with the airports and aircrafts such as manufacturing, maintenance as well as operations are included within this industry. This report is regarding the Draft Master Plan for the London City Airport. The report will include the key features of this plan and also its benefits to the commercial aviation serving London. London Coty Airport is one of the smallest out of 5 airports in London but the services provided by such airports are very significant for the connectivity for businesses as well as leisure travelers. The report will not only present the characteristics and positive impact of such a master plan on commercial aviation but also the impact of current COVID-19pandemics' influence over the proposed development. The credibility and value of such a plan after this situation will also be discussed in this report.
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Draft Master Plan for London City Airport
The current master plan followed by the London City Airport is the 2006 master plan which identifies the prospect demands for the airport till the year ending 2030. The plan was quite successful in finding out the growth in the requirements consistent with the current development plan but now there is a need to update this master plan focusing on the increasing demands as well as the certain changes in the governmental policies made for the aviation sector and the changes in the industry.
The master plan is for the time from 2020 to 2035 to respond to the continuously increasing demand for leisure as well as businesses traveling through the air in the most responsible and sustainable way. The complete details for the next 15 years are included in this plan. The Draft Master Plan is the long-term vision for the London City Airport and focuses on creating job opportunities as well as supporting the city as an important region for business and tourism traveling. Changing government policies and the dynamics of the aviation industry have beenfollowed within the master plan for the better results and development of commercial aviation.
Key Features of the draft master plan
Forecasts- based: The draft master plan prepared for the London City Airport is prepared on the basis of forecasts made till 2035 on the basis of the number of increments in the business and leisure travelingpassengers. This plan follows an increment of 42% in the number of passengers at the central airport of London over the past 5 years. It also follows the constant shifting of the center of London towards the east where it has found that the growth rate regarding the jobs, population, office space as well as the home is quite higher than other major parts of the city. This will be beneficial for the airport to follow the master plan for further development to manage such increments in the most effective way and get maximum benefits out of it (Heinemann, et. al., 2016).
Sustainability: One of the most important key features of this master plan is that it is completely focused on bringing sustainability in the business. The plan is based on the measures encouraging and motivating the airlines to increase and accelerate their investment in the latest and brand new generation of the quieter and cleaner aircraft having the benefits of 17% more efficiency of fuel as compared to their older generation which was less efficient. It has been predicted in the master plan that such new aircraft such as Embraer E2 and Airbus A220 could comprise 75% of all the jet aircraft by the end of the year 2035. It has also been announced by the airlines operating currently from the airport that they will re-fleet to such new-generation aircraft for better performance and be upgraded with the latest technological changes (Banai, 2017).
Service frequency: The draft master plan is also featured with the ability to maintain and providing the high quantity and frequency of the services on the most important route including the key European financial centerssuch as Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Milan, and Zurich. The plan is also focused on increasing the services to different emerging cities including Munich and Berlin. As it has been identified that the airport generally sees the increment in the leisure network at the time of summer, the current aircraft fleet limits the chances available to satisfy the requirements of the local passengersin winter. It has been predicted in the master plan that the more effective aircraft will have the power and range to solve this issue and will be able to provide the services to the winter destinations such as the Canary Islands and Cyprus. It will be quite helpful in providing the more balanced network which will be serving the local passenger's requirements. It will also ensure that the local passengers are able to use their local airport (Berawi, et. al., 2018).
Consistent with Policies: The next characteristic or the feature of this draft master plan is that it is completely in accordance with the government policies and guidelines. All the rules and emerging policies outlined by the government of the UK and the Mayor of London are followed within the draft master plan. The plan is focused on making the airport carbon neutral by the end of the year and it will also be committed to achieving zero carbon emissions by the end of the year 2050.
Transportation Facilities: There have also been set out the criteria for the London City Airport to work with the partners in order to improve the position of the airport among all the best airports in the UK for the use of public transport, raising the proportion of the individuals traveling from and to the airport through any sustainable and public modes from a rate of 69% to 80% by the end of the year 2035. The master plan states that these measures can be achieved through taking some important initiatives such as new Cross railservices, earlier starts time on the DLR, riverboat as well as cycling routes, adding walking as well as developing the initiatives for the staff members for the sustainable transportation system.
Adapting Infrastructure: The aim of this master plan is not to manufacture or build any new runway or make plans for the expansion of the existing runway in terms of width and length. The plan isfeatured with its objective to make the most effective use of the infrastructure of the existing runway which is consistent with the Aviation Policy given by the Government. In the terms of taxiway, in order to meet the requirement of the 152,000 ATMs which are forecasted by end of the year 2035, there will be a requirement of making some extra airfield upgrades along with the CADP. These upgrades will prove to be helpful for the airport to respond to the high demand by the end of 2035 of up to 52 ATMs in an hour to supply for the growth in the traffic. In short, the airport will be able to satisfy the demand of the passengers by making the best use of the existing runway as well as other infrastructural facilities with a slight development and improvement by 2035 and there will be no higher expenditure on the further development of the infrastructure (Sharma and Newman, 2017).
Development of commercial aviation serving London
In the upper section, the key features of the draft master plan were discussed and the benefits of the plan were also summarized. It has been estimated that this master plan will be quite helpful in enhancing the commercial aviation industry. As per the estimates and forecast made in the master plan, it has also been predicted that if the airport would be serving for 11 million passengersper year by the end of 2035, there will be a need for more local people working on-site or airport directly. It will give opportunities to the local residents for jobs and employment. It has been predicted that there will be a requirement of 2500 new full-time job appointments in the local area which is a good symbol for the commercial aviation sector serving London (Heinemann, et. al., 2016).
There will be the subtle development of commercial aviation through the implementation of such a draft master plan as it will not only increase the revenue for the industry but also will be cateringto a huge number of the passengers to satisfy their demands (Mokhele, 2018). The concepts and plans for benefitting the local residents have also been included in the master plan which will be beneficial for the community as a whole. As the demand will be increased by 36% from 1,11,000 to 1,51,000 by the end of 2035 as per the forecast in the draft master plan, there will also be increased the requirement of the 110 flights per day. It has also been proposed that there will be not much expenditure required for making the development in the infrastructure facilities, the benefits arising out of such a master plan will be high as compared to its costs. These factors highlighted within the master plan are quite helpful in enhancing the growth of commercial aviation as the industry will grow through additional flights and additional employees. The overall revenue of the industry will increase along with the number of passengers increasing every year for leisure trips and business trips (Moxon, 2016).
Due to the increment in economic output and productivity, there is expected a contribution of the £190 million per year to the UK GVA by the year 2035. It is a symbol of the growth and development of commercial aviation and the airport will be able to serve the local passengers in an appropriate manner. The development of the airport with the help of this master plan will also provide benefits to the high value-adding industries. With the growing demand, the contribution of the industry to the development as well as for the economy will also increase. There are already many airports in London city and London City Airport is the smallest one out of all. Despite this, the airport is serving the passengers through its most effective and sustainable services keeping the demands of customers on the priority list. Further developments in the airport will also be helpful in the effectivedevelopment of commercial aviation through more employment opportunities and increased output and productivity (Crimeen, et. al.,2018).
Possible Impacts of COVID 19 Pandemic on proposed developments
The COVID 19 Pandemic has brought several challenges for the aviation industry globally as a huge impact on the business and job opportunities in theaviation sector has been recorded. There are severalpoints covered in the master plan for London City Airport which seem to be of no use after this pandemic situation of the COVID 19.
The major impact of such COVID 19 pandemic is on the tour and travel activities as a big stop on international flights and some domestic flights have been seen. There is going to be a huge decline in the number of passengers over the period of time in the future because of the fear which has made its place in the mindset of the travelers (Nepal, 2020). The aviation industry has been adversely impacted as the government policies of the UK as well as other countries are in favor of keeping the traveling and tourism activities on hold for an indefinite period. Domestic as well as international flights are getting canceledin all over the worldin order to stop the transmission of such a dangerous virus. The visas are also getting canceled by the government for the foreign people and the areas highly affected are also getting locked down. As per the proposed master plan, there was estimated that there will be growth in the number of passengers for business and leisure traveling.
The purpose of this draft master plan was to provide a framework that would be helpful in responding to the current and future demands in the industry. It aimed to involve the stakeholders and the local community for the potential future development of commercial aviation serving London (Mežaraups, 2019). It further planned to inform the planning authorities in order to get the assistance to prepare the documents of local and strategic planning. Following are some of the key core areas which are addressed within the draft master plan:
Proposals for infrastructure
Forecasts
Property take and safeguarding
Addressing the influence over the natural environment and community
Proposal for the mitigation and reduction of the impacts
All these concepts and elements have been affected negatively by the COVID 19 Pandemic situation as there has not remained any space for the new hires as already existing pilots and other crew members are being laid off due to the heavy losses faced by the companies and aviation industry. There has been seen a great decline after the pandemic situation in the revenue of the airlines and aviation industry due to which several numbers of the employees have lost their jobs. As per the estimation in the master plan, ether was need of increasing the flights and the staff but as per the current situation, for the next few years, there will be a requirement of avoiding any further expenses and the current capacity of the flights will also not be fulfilled due to the heavy fall in the demand in the market (Ivanov, 2020). Most of the elements covered in the master plan have not remained of any sense or use and there is a requirement to wait for everything to be fine and in the right place. The position of Europe is also very devastated due to the outbreak of COVID 19 and the airline industry has been badly affected due to this situation. People have the fear in their wind which will definitely remain for further years after the situation will get normal.
As per the current situations, the plan does not make any sense because most of the development points kept in the forecast are of no use due to the completely changed situation of the sector. There is now a requirement of putting everything back in place and make the industry stable again. Due to the lack of demand in the market, there is no point in developing the infrastructure and proposing new flights as the number of passengers is going to be reduced in the prospect future (Gierczak-Korzeniowska1a and Kowalczyk2b, 2019).
Conclusion
This report has concluded that there are many features of the master plan which has tried to develop the commercial aviation industry for a better future. The report presented that Over the last 5 years, there has been seen significant growth in the number of passengers by approximately 40%. The draft master plan prepared is concentrated in sustainable development and all the plans presented in the draft are consistent with the policies of the government. In the report, the possible impacts have beendiscussed of the COVID 19 pandemic on such development plans and it has been identified that now there is no sense of using such a master plan for the development of London City Airport.
References
Banai, R., 2017. The aerotropolis: Urban sustainability perspectives from the regional city. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 10(1), pp.357-373.
Berawi, M.A., Susantono, B., Miraj, P. and Nurmadinah, F., 2018.Prioritizing airport development plan to optimize financial feasibility. Aviation, 22(3), pp.115-128.
Crimeen, A., de Leeuw, E. and Freestone, R., 2018. Towards a health promotion paradigm for airport development. Cities & Health, 2(2), pp.134-142.
Gierczak-Korzeniowska1a, B. and Kowalczyk2b, A., 2019. The Concept of the Aerotropolis Based on the Development of Hong Kong International Airport.
Heinemann, P., Schmidt, M., Jeßberger, C., Will, F., Kaiser, S. and Hornung, M., 2016. Sizing and Performance Implications of a Regional Aircraft For Inner-City-Airport Operations. In READ 2016 6th SCAD.
Ivanov, D., 2020. Predicting the impacts of epidemic outbreaks on global supply chains: A simulation-based analysis on the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) case. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 136, p.101922.
Mežaraups, R., 2019. Sustainable development principles implementation in Riga international airport (Doctoral dissertation, Tartu Ülikool).
Mokhele, M., 2018. The volatility of institutional arrangements that influence development: The case of Bram Fischer International Airport in South Africa. TD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 14(1), pp.1-8.
Moxon, R., 2016. Trends in airport surface access in the London multi-airport system. Journal of Air Transport Studies, 7(1), pp.1-28.
Nepal, S.K., 2020. Travel and tourism after COVID-19-business as usual or opportunity to reset?. Tourism Geographies, pp.1-5.
Sharma, R. and Newman, P., 2017. Urban rail and sustainable development key lessons from Hong Kong, New York, London and India for emerging cities. Transportation research procedia, 26, pp.92-105.
