London City Airport - Facilities
London City Airport's main strength is its size, you can arrive at the airport 20 minutes before your flight is due to depart and still make boarding on time (it is recommended to leave more time than this in case of unexpected problems). Arriving at the airport even quicker, you can be off the aircraft and in to a taxi (or DLR train) within 10 minutes. Even if you have luggage to collect, it is usually on the belt within a matter of minutes making it the fastest London airport for baggage handling.
The airport currently has 26 check-in desks as well as self service machines for some of the major airlines. Most airlines offer internet check-in, with a facility to print your boarding pass at home. Even if you don't have a printer at home you can still check-in online and collect your boarding pass at the airport.
Facilities are fairly typical for an airport of this size, there's a decent restaurant and bar located both before and after security. If you decide to go for a meal remember to keep an eye out for your boarding time, it's amazing the number of people who try to order a three course meal when they've only got 20 minutes to take off!
The restaurant before security is called The Meridian Line and offers a wide range of meals, whereas the Trattoria restaurant after security specialises in Italian food for lunch and dinner. Both restaurants offer both traditional and continental breakfasts. If you have a morning flight it is worth arriving at the airport early to get a breakfast at the Trattoria. The Trattoria has been recently expanded so there's almost always space available in this popular restaurant.
If you're not after a full meal there's a range of places where you can get a small snack, sandwich or a coffee. The departure lounge can get quite busy at peak times, particularly on Friday evenings, but you will experience less problems than you would at a larger airport such as Heathrow.
At the moment smoking is allowed in a section of the departure area, but this will be banned from the 1st July due to UK regulations banning smoking in England from that date.
The airport features a DLR station, bus station and taxi rank. For more information about getting to and from the airport see the directions page.