New destinations with £40m City airport expansion

London City airport is to offer a series of new destinations as part of a £40 million expansion.

The number of travellers using the airport is set to rise from two million this year to at least 3.5 million by 2010. There are plans to enlarge the terminal building and to provide more space for aircraft. The airport hopes to offer flights to Glasgow and Newcastle this year and is looking at links with Copenhagen, Stockholm, Madrid, Milan and Vienna by the end of 2006. It now serves 23 destinations, 14 of them on the Continent.

Richard Gooding, airport managing director, said poorly performing railways were allowing it to maintain air links with Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool-It is to gain a direct link to central London when an extension to the Docklands Light Railway is completed this year.

The airport is also growing as a centre for private jets - takeoffs and landings are expected to double to 14,000 in 2007.