London City Airport returned to the black for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic as passenger numbers continued to recover.
The hub has reported a pre-tax profit of £6.6m for 2023, according to newly-filed accounts with Companies House, having made a loss of £1.1m in the prior 12 months.
London City Airport had last made a pre-tax profit when it reported a total of £47.8m in 2019.
Since then it lost £48m in 2020, £45.5m in 2021 and £1.1m in 2022.
The new results also show that London City Airport’s turnover increased from £85.2m to £102.6m.
The last time its turnover totalled more than £100m was the £128m it achieved in 2019.
The hub said its turnover was helped by its passenger numbers rising from 2.9m to 3.4m. Its passenger numbers stood at 5.1m in 2019.
London City Airport is owned by a consortium made up of Alberta Investment Management Corporation, OMERS Infrastructure, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Wren House Infrastructure Management.
Expansion at London City Airport to take off
The government recently granted London City Airport permission to significantly expand its capacity.
As a result, the airport will be able to increase its annual passenger cap from 6.5m to 9m passengers and fly three extra flights in the first half hour of operations.
However, the government did not accept its plans to lengthen its Saturday afternoon operating hours.
The results come after BA Cityflyer, the main airline operating from London City Airport, said a “laser focus” on improving its service led to increased punctuality and profit for 2023.
The business, which is wholly owned by British Airways, reported a pre-tax profit of £11.1m for the year, up from £4.3m in 2022.
The figure comes after the carrier reported a pre-tax loss of £31.6m in 2021 and £60.3m in 2020.
Accounts with Companies House also show its turnover rose from £249.3m to £281.6m in the year.
Its latest figures are still lower than the turnover of £290.6m and pre-tax profit of £27.1m it achieved in 2019, the last full year before the Covid-19 pandemic.