London City Airport welcomed 4,319,521 passengers in 2015, an 18.38 per cent increase on 2014, to set a new passenger number record.

The only London airport actually in London enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of growth to beat the previous record of 3.6 million, boosted by British Airways’ busiest ever summer.

The first full year of services by Flybe also benefited the airport, while added rotations on a number of routes such as Milan (Alitalia) and Luxembourg (Lux Air) also played a role.

New destinations, including Basel and Bern (Skywork), Cork (Cityjet), and Mykonos and Santorini (British Airways), were also launched at London City.

The airport’s most popular destinations were Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Dublin, Zurich, and Rotterdam, reflecting the airport’s growing popularity for both business and leisure passengers travelling both within the UK and to Europe.

London City chief executive Declan Collier said: “We are very pleased to have set a new record for passenger numbers which has capped what was a highly successful year for the airport.

“2016 will be an important year with the completion of our West Pier expansion project and the appeal for our City Airport Development Programme, which will be heard at a public inquiry later in the spring.

“Through simple infrastructure improvements - an extension to our terminal building, additional aircraft parking stands, and a new parallel taxi lane - our airport has the potential to be even more successful, provide 2,000 new jobs, unlock much-needed short-term airport capacity, double our economic impact for London to £1.5 billion, drive the regeneration of East London, and improve connectivity within the UK and to Europe.”