Tag Archives: Plane taxiing

London City Airport new taxiway goes live

When the airfield opened for business on Monday 23rd November 2020 the new parallel taxiway became available for operational use.

The first commercial passenger flight to make use of the new taxiway at London City Airport was KLM flight KL994 to Amsterdam operated by E190 PH-EZY. A pity it was after dark so not the best images but still on record for posterity.

The new taxiway is a core element of the London City Airport Development Programme (CADP) and it extends from the end of the former apron area and runs past the area for the provision of up to eight new aircraft parking stands and then connects with and newly expanded Eastern holding area.

New aircraft parking apron with Operations Vehicles

The work also includes a new taxiway link (Taxiway Foxtrot) to the runway which connects at the location of the turning circle that was put in place when the runway was first built.

Removing the temporary closure barriers from Link Foxtrot

The new taxiway also includes three new interim holding points, these are designated Tango 7, Tango 8 and Tango 9 and are located between the end of the new apron (just West of the link Foxtrot) and the newly enlarged Eastern holding area (just West of link Kilo).

Overview of the new taxiway at LCY

On Friday the 13th November 2020 the first trials of the new taxiway were undertaken by British Airways Cityflyer Embraer E190 G-LCYO. The aircraft ran through a number of pre-planned taxi patterns to test that the various entry and exit profiles between the taxiway and runway met the design parameters and to provide general feedback on the use of the taxiway and new link and holds. A second test run was undertaken after dark to ensure a full test of the new facility.

The following timelapse video shows the afternoon test run.

The new taxiway also has space for a vehicle path for Airfield Operations and Airport Fire Service vehicles and a parking layby is provided just West of holding point Tango 9.

The purpose of the new taxiway is mainly focused on improving runway utilisation rates by removing the need to provide wider separation between aircraft during runway back-tracking operations. This has obvious safety benefits and should help reduced the number of missed approaches caused by aircraft not clearing the active runway in a timely manner.

A further benefit should be a reduction in the time between engine startup and wheels up from the runway as the extra space and removal of the back-tracking requirement should help save time and reduce ground noise and emissions.

A full video showing the taxiway trials , including some night footage, can be seen below.