What's London City Airport like?

[NoisyBrain]

Looking a flights for next summer. BA have some good prices for where we want to go, flying from London City Airport.

For those of you who've flown from there for a holiday as opposed to business, how would you rate it compared to Heathrow/Gatwick? We're not especially high maintenance travellers, but things like cost/availability of parking, length of security queues and likelihood of delays would probably influence our decision.

Am I right in thinking flight departures are often affected by fog?

TIA

Business travellers are of course also welcome to comment!

I’m flying in there on Friday for the first time! Interested to know too.

Its very small.

It's a bit like a bus station and there's a pret but other than that, not much to speak of.

We flew from London City once about 10 years ago. It was the most wonderful airport experience ever. Relaxed, uncrowded, spacious, nice food places... it was ridiculously civilised.

It’s my favourite airport to fly from. It’s small, but perfectly formed! My best ever flight home I was off the plane and in my house within 30 minutes (and I had hold luggage).

Tiny, in and out quite quickly.

You will have to investigate parking. If you are going for longer than a v short break the parking will be ridiculous.
It’s actually a great airport to fly from but taxi/public transport is the way to get there. Security can be long later in the afternoons but it moves really quickly.

Brilliant - my airport of choice for travelling with kids. Small, fast, few queues.

Parking would be £££££. You’d be better getting public transport or if there are 4 or so of you, a cab from a mai line station.

It is tiny and at times can be utterly rammed. My DH uses it weekly to fly up and down from Edinburgh to London. He hates it but accepts it is the easiest to access the city.

I really like City because it's so easy to get to (of course, this all depends where you're coming from, but it does have decent public transport connections). I've never used parking so can't comment on that. What it is much better than the others for is being able to pick up and drop off for free right outside the main door, rather than have to choose between the free drop off that's so far away you need a bus to get to the terminal and a drop off outside the doors that costs £10 (I'm looking at you, Stansted).

It is much smaller than any of the other London airports (except 'London' Southend) so there's a lot less to do in terms of shops etc. but there's still a couple of places to eat, charge phones, buy toiletries etc. Don't expect a huge duty free extravaganza.

Security queues have always been tiny when I've been. Certainly loads shorter than Stansted and Heathrow (I haven't used Gatwick or Luton for a long while). It's generally much quicker to get through than any of the other airports, I think partly because of its size and partly because it has a high proportion of business frequent flyers who don't faff about realising at the last minute than bottles of water count as liquid, you'll need to show your boarding pass at this point etc. So the queues tend to keep moving.

It can be affected by fog (I hear it on the local news sometimes) but I don't know if it's worse compared to other airports. Maybe there's proper statistic available online somewhere? The only time I ever had a disrupted flight there was through snow and all the other London airports were also affected.

I would avoid it at main commuter times, e.g. Monday morning and Friday evening. If you're with a family then middle of the day would be much quieter. It closes early on Saturdays.

I’ve only used it for business but City is my favourite airport and I miss using it. Security - majority of people know what to do and are prepared e.g used to see people walking into the airport with their plastic bags of toiletries ready to go, and people taking off their belts before queueing.

Loads of power sockets, WiFi access and generally quiet - most people are either working or in quiet conversation. I wouldn’t have looked but I don’t think there are any facilities for children if that matters to you.
No idea about parking as I used cabs to get there.

I flew pretty much every week between November and March from there and had only one delayed flight out - but gatwick and Heathrow were also impacted that day as colleagues were also delayed. But it is known for fog delays.

By the way I loathe Luton and will avoid it now despite the fact it’s my nearest airport - used for business and holiday. Gatwick - only used a couple of times and dislike it but not to the point of avoiding it.
I currently fly out of Heathrow Terminal 5 every two weeks or so, and don’t find it too bad normally ( business but have to check luggage). Dislike terminal 2 and haven’t flown out of the others recently.

Parking - no idea as I get a cab to the airport and back.

I used to fly from city twice a week. As someone who doesn’t enjoy flying I hated the short runway/steep approach, so much so that when I had a choice I would choose to fly from elsewhere!

I used to use it a lot when I lived in east London, it's my favourite airport. It's very small so you're not trudging miles but on the other hand that means not much in the way of food and shopping. The runway is very short and surrounded by water so sometimes take-off and landing can be a little interesting if the wind is being temperamental. Also because of the shortness of the runway if there is no wind or it's very humid they sometimes can't take a full plane of passengers. DH and I were once one of the last ones to check in and they were unsure whether they would let us onto the flight because of this. I always allowed an extra 15 mins to be a bit early for check-in after that.

Brilliant! Small and efficient, use it as much as poss as we love 20 mins away, steep landing and takeoff compared to other airports, no shopping faff to walk past if that’s not your thing, small choice for food but again never an issue.

Flew out from there in July on holiday, it was fine, got there on the tube / DLR. Small airport but that's fine with me. Plus if you fly BA at City they give you food for free on Economy whereas they don't when flying Heathrow/Gatwick.

Yes the steep approach, reliance on twin props for short flights and the tendency for fog also scores low for me.

I fly in and out of London most weeks. I avoid London city.

Thanks, some interesting replies. I'm liking the sound of it, though OH is not a great flyer so I probably wouldn't mention the short runway to him!

We're not bothered about shopping or facilities for kids. Have 5 year old DC but he's easily occupied with apps on my phone a book.

Bookish Luton is our closest airport too. It's so close that we are often prepared to tolerate it , and if we can find significantly cheaper flights from there might end up using it, but won't know til later this month when Easyjet flights are released.

I like city and in my DHs experience of using London City these past few years and throughout the four seasons, his departing flight has only been delayed by fog once. (Jersey airport has more issues with fog).

It has a short runway so take offs and landings can be steep and they use a lot of turboprop aircraft. There are more places to eat in there now post security as well but as airports go its still pretty small.

They do have an offsite car park but you need to prebook that online.
Best way to arrive there anyway is via the Docklands Light Railway as it has a direct link between that and the airport.

Great airport. So much easier than Gatwick or Heathrow

I fly from there regularly with kids and love it. We go on the DLR usually as we are quite close. We drove there a few years ago when the kids were littler and there was free on street parking on the streets surrounding the airport. Not sure if that is still the case.