“This company has clearly made a valuable contribution to the relationship between the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, and especially the relationship between their financial centres,” says Peter Bateman, UK ambassador to Luxembourg. While the two share a certain rivalry, the past 18 months or so have seen a more symbiotic approach to financial sector operations, and this could be symbolised by the integration of VLM airlines into CityJet, and the Air France KLM group as a whole, with the airline switching to an Air France codeshare from now on.

As for 2009, the year in which figures have borne the brunt of the financial crisis, “we have kept damages very limited on our Luxembourg to London City Airport route,” says Johan Vanneste, CEO of VLM Airlines. Indeed, forecasts for this year show a drop from 2008’s figure of 64,278 to an estimated 60,315 passengers on the route, a fall of about 6%. The load factor on the route, meanwhile, is predicted to be approximately 67%, a drop of 1% from the 2008 figure of 68%. 

New and old advantages

Of the routes operated by CityJet and VLM in their separate incarnations, as well as the new united ones, the one linking London City with the Grand Duchy is, according to Vanneste, “the strongest forward-booking route of our whole network, as well as one of the top three in terms of performance.” The route remains comfortably in profit, with Vanneste admitting that the structure of overheads between the two airports allows the Fokker 50s that operate on the route to generate revenue at levels above approximately 55% occupancy. It is nevertheless rather surprising that it did not benefit to any great degree from the end of Luxair’s service to Heathrow. Those passenger numbers seem to have swelled the ranks on British Airways’ Luxembourg to Gatwick route more than any other between the two countries.

“The location of London City Airport is a clear advantage over Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted,” states Laurent Petitmangin, Head of Sales and Marketing at CityJet. The recently-refurbished airport is actually within 30 minutes transfer of the financial district in the City of London, as well as Bank tube station, Canary Wharf, the O2 Arena and the Olympic facilities at Stratford. As Petitmangin points out, “while our core customer base on the Luxembourg to London City route is clearly business travellers, the airport affords leisure passengers opportunities they will not get at the other London airports in terms of access time and check-in speed – the passengers are within easy reach of major attractions.” A well as the high levels of customer service on board, not to mention a more than decent hit rate in terms of on-time performance, passengers on CityJet’s thrice-daily (for weekdays. Weekends vary) Luxembourg – London City route will also be able to avail of the Flying Blue frequent flyer program afforded to all Air France KLM group clients.