London City Airport (LCY) has welcomed the return of flights to Milan Linate as the city-centre hub seizes on pent-up demand from business and leisure travellers.

ITA Airways, the Italian flag-carrier, is the first new airline to fly from London City since the pandemic and is now operating a triple-daily service (18 weekly) from LCY to Milan.

The route cements tourist and business links between two of Europe’s primary financial hubs.

Milan is also a popular destination for leisure passengers due to its wide variety of cultural and historical tourist attractions, including the San Siro football stadium and the Duomo di Milano.

The re-opening of one of the most popular routes of 2019, before the pandemic struck, is London City’s latest show of confidence in the resilience of its key leisure and business network and the services to Milan-Linate are complimented by the British Airways daily service to Milan-Malpensa airport.

The airport is reinstating all 15 of its top-performing pre-pandemic routes.

Barcelona will return to the network for the first time in almost a decade, while new routes such as Thessaloniki join established summer favourites like Split, Mykonos and Faro for summer 2022.

London City Airport head of aviation, Anne Doyere, said: “At its peak, this route served 360,000 passengers per year and was one our top five performers, so its return is a significant moment in our recovery.

“We are also delighted to welcome ITA to the airport.

“We believe this can be the start of a very successful relationship and hopefully, over time, we can work together to add more rotations on Linate and more routes from Italy to London’s most central airport.”