London City Airport
With a long runway in the middle of the Royal Docks and located between UEL and Woolwich Dockyards and its own DLR and bus stations, London City Airport is one of the Docklands most famous and popular landmarks which offers travellers the chance to fly to up to 40 locations as close as Edinburgh or as far as Madrid. All flights from London City Airport also have connection points in order to give you the chance to fly to hundreds more destinations of your choice.
Officially opened in 1987 by Queen Elizabeth II the airport only provided flights to and from Plymouth, Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam and served just 133,000 customers in its first year. However, as the number of locations increased and the airport became more popular, particularly with business flights, customer numbers increased and 2012 saw the airport serve 3 million customers. With the Olympic stadium being so close to the airport as well as the transport links that are available throughout the area this may come as little surprise.
Throughout the terminal there are a number of restaurants and shops for you to visit. Should you get hungry whilst waiting for that delayed flight you can always visit the Pret a Manger or Panopolis sandwich shops. Or maybe you forgot to bring something to read on the flight, in which case you can pop into WH Smith and quickly grab a book or magazine. And that’s only before security.
Once you’ve made it past the gates and x-ray machines, the restaurants and shops keep on coming. For food and drink you’ll be able to grab a British meal in Rhubarb, a hot coffee in Caffe Nero and Espressament Illy or a quick pint in the City Bar & Grill. Not only will you be able to grab a bite to eat before your long flight, but you’ll be able to go shopping for some new jewellery or the latest perfumes in the terminal’s duty free shops.
The first shop to look in is Aelia Duty Free which sells everything from red wines to tobacco at duty free prices. Following on from that is Beat the High Street, a perfume shop selling all the major brands for lower than high street prices. What’s more is that they’ll refund the difference if you manage to find the perfume sold at a lower price. Finally there’s the Swiss watch and diamond shop Gassan which sells a wide range of exclusive watches and jewellery brands such as Rolex, DKNY, Calvin Klein and Diesel for that perfect gift. There is also another WH Smith bookshop in this area, just in case you were unable to find the perfect book before you went through security.
If you need to change your holiday money’s currency there is a bureau de change both before and after security as well as a number of cash points at which you can withdraw both pounds and/or euros.
Due to noise restrictions and students wanting to have their daily lie in flights only run from 6:30am to 10:30pm on weekdays, 6:30am to 1pm on Saturdays and 12:30 to 10:30pm on Sundays.
Info and bookings can be made at http://www.londoncityairport.com/