This summer, the London International Airport announced it would offer flights to “The Big Apple.”
Now, New York City is just 90 minutes away.
CEO of the London International Airport Mike Seabrook says the flights (that started Sunday) have been filling up better than first predicted.
“We’ve been very happy with the results to date, it’s starting better than expected and we’re very happy,” he says. “There are a couple different ways to measure success: profitability and load factor, what percentage the aircraft is full.”
A round trip ticket will set you back about $400. Flights may be cheaper from US cities like Detroit or Buffalo, but the convenience is such a good selling point.
“When you factor in your drive time down there, the expensive parking, border crossing, and depending on the flight time, a hotel, it’s pretty good value at and around that range,” Seabrook says. “In some respects, when we have a devalued dollar it makes the exercise of driving to a US airport a little bit more expensive versus the Canadian experience.”
United Airlines is behind the new endeavour, but are no strangers to London. They’ve offered flights to Chicago for years.
“They’ve been here since 2009 and they’ve built their business on reasonable fares, good service, and the convenience of our airport. That’s certainly a factor in people’s minds.”
Seabrook hopes the trend continues and is looking forward to working with the new city council to grow the airport.
“The best way to grow an airport is to incrementally add services and make sure the service that gets added is successful. We’d like to have an airport that’s two or three times as busy as it is today.”
