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Sustainable Transport

Helping passengers, staff and airport users travel sustainably

Sustainable transport plays a key part in making London City Airport accessible to our passengers each year. Travellers love the unique door-to-door experience LCY offers, due to our speedy passenger processing times and convenient location. Our rapid public transport links are especially popular. The airport has its own Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station and the high proportion of passengers taking DLR or bus means we enjoy sector-leading rates of sustainable transport use.

Travellers love the unrivalled door-to-door experience LCY offers, thanks to our speedy passenger processing and convenient location. Our rapid public transport links are especially popular, which means a high proportion of passengers use the DLR or bus to get to/from the airport.

Surface Access Strategy 2017-2025

LCY has an Airport Surface Access Strategy 2017-2025 (ASAS), as is required under the Airports National Policy Statement. The ASAS was prepared in conjunction with the Airport Transport Forum (ATF), as per criteria set out in the Government’s Aviation Policy Framework 2013. The ASAS is a strategic document presenting the objectives for LCY to facilitate sustainable surface transport for staff, passengers, and servicing vehicles.

The ASAS contains a set of targets aimed at increasing the use of sustainable transport by staff and passengers as the airport grows, and as London’s Royal Docks and the wider East London area develops. It seeks to improve accessibility to public transport, both physical infrastructure and information, reduce emissions and promote sustainable transport. The targets in the ASAS reflect local accessibility to public and sustainable transport and delivery of improved and new sustainable transport infrastructure and services in the local and wider area, which requires collaborative working with relevant stakeholders including:

  • Transport for London (TfL)

  • London Borough of Newham (LBN)

  • Greater London Authority (GLA)

Surface Access Strategy Review 2022

A review of the ASAS was undertaken in 2022, with the review having several objectives including:

  • Setting out progress to date on the ASAS, presenting insights developed from the analysis of the recent staff and passenger travel surveys

  • Presenting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel patterns and priorities

  • A forward look towards the end of the strategy period (2025)

Documents

Key documents are available to view at the following links:

Surface Access Strategy 2017 - 2025Surface Access Strategy Review 2022Travel Plan 2023 - 2025

Targets, Objectives and Progress

ASAS Key Priorities

The airport has taken the six priorities that underpin the ASAS and used them as the basis for 26 Transport Objectives that guide the short term work of LCY and of the ATF. Some of these are objectives that the airport must lead on, while others must be delivered in partnership with the ATF and other key stakeholders.

These priorities have been used to measure progress in the Surface Access Strategy Review 2022 and inform measures which have been undertaken to promote sustainable and public transport usage.

The six priorities are as follows:

  • Closing the information gap – Making the first journey as easy as the hundredth.

  • Offering the right travel services – Providing passengers and staff with the travel service they need at the times they need to travel, reinforcing the role of the Airport as an important travel hub for London.

  • Equality of Access – Improving access for all passengers by enhancing step-free access, ensuring mobility friendly services are easily accessible, improving wayfinding and providing improved passenger assistance.

  • Facilitating Healthy Streets – Recognising the role of the Airport in the local area.

  • Offering Low Carbon Alternatives – Monitoring, tracking, and reducing carbon emissions form all airport related surface access transport movements, including airport related servicing and delivery movements.

  • A Collaborative Approach – Working with partners to increase the use and availability of sustainable travel.

The Transport Objectives that sit underneath these cover a range of activities – from promoting public transport to staff and passengers, to working with transport providers to ensure that the needs of airport users are recognised, to providing passengers and staff with more user-friendly transport information. These 26 objectives cover many aspects, but they are not exhaustive and as such other issues are also investigated, managed, or actioned as they arise.

Targets and Progress

The mode share targets contained within the ASAS comprise the following, to be achieved by 2025:

  • 75% of passengers using public and sustainable transport;

  • Fewer than 40% of staff travelling by single occupancy car trips.

These targets were set in the context of the airport’s operations and CADP1 development and did not anticipate the impacts of COVID-19. Nevertheless, progress has and will continue to be made towards achieving these targets.

Within the 2023-2025 Travel Plan, the target remains for 75% of passengers to use sustainable transport by 2025. For staff, the target has been revised to fewer than 48% of staff travelling by single occupancy car trips by 2025, in order to reflect the disruption caused by COVID-19 in implementing the staff specific initiatives.

The 2022 APR reported that use of sustainable transport improved to 68% in 2022. Whilst this remains below the 73% pre-pandemic levels, it shows a growing level of confidence in the use of public transport.

In relation to staff travel, it was reported that 57% of staff travelled to work in a car on their own, and 43% used sustainable transport. There was a continuation of working from home guidance for non-essential operational staff working for the airport, with 21% of staff choosing to work from home for part of the week.

Current Initiatives

Current initiatives being pursued in 2023 to promote increased use of sustainable transport include:

  • Improved information at the airport for onward connections via the DLR including a new Information Office in the Airport’s DLR station (opened in November 2023)

  • A better transfer for passengers to Elizabeth Line services through clearer wayfinding

  • Provision of real time information at the LCY bus stand

  • Building the case for earlier running of DLR trains to the airport

  • More secure, covered cycle parking for passengers and staff

  • For staff, improved information and incentives to encourage more sustainable journeys to work under the banner of Way to Work

The Role of the Airport Transport Forum

The ATF provides a collaborative environment for key stakeholders to maintain a longer-term approach to transport planning by providing direction and guidance to the airport’s ASAS. The ATF meets twice per year in accordance with the requirements of the Section 106 agreement applicable to the Airport.

Future Programme of Dates

The following comprises a rolling programme of dates for the LCY ATF:

  • 21 November 2023

  • June 2024

  • November 2024

  • June 2025

Air Transport Forum Agendas and Minutes

Copies of the minutes of the ATF can be found below.

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