London City Airport’s New Largest Aircraft: Helvetic Airways Sets the Record

London City Airport (LCY) is the smallest of the London area airports but in no way is it the least interesting. The airport's location and operations make it unique and a magnate for aviation enthusiasts as me. The airport has some very stringent regulations imposing limits over the aircraft types that can use the airport. However, there is a new record to be noted in this regard. London City Airport has a new largest aircraft serving it on a regular commercial service.

Helvetic Airways Sets the Record (Again) at London City Airport

The record set is for the largest aircraft serving the airport on a regularly scheduled commercial flight. Coincidentally it is the same airline that held the prior record to have set the new one.

Helvetic Airways, a Swiss regional airline, has broken its own record which stood since 2021. In 2021 the airline was the first carrier to operate flights to London City Airport, from Switzerland of course, aboard brand-new Embraer E190-E2 (second generation E190). Now it's upped its game introducing an even larger plane on its routes from Switzerland.

The new aircraft Helvetic Airways has introduced is the larger E195-E2 belonging to the same family of the E190. The new aircraft can seat up to 134 passengers on a full load, up from 110 the E190 could seat.

For comparison, the second largest aircraft type to serve London City Airport is the Airbus A220-100. That is the smaller version of the Airbus aircraft (what once was the CS100). The A220-100 can seat up to 125 passengers which is 9 short of the Helvetic Airways E195-E2.

Helvetic Airways operates flights to London City Airport on behalf of SWISS, the flag carrier of Switzerland, from Zurich International Airport. Also, the airline put emphasis on how it is the only wet-lease carrier to have served flights to London City Airport with three different Embraer aircraft.

SWISS operates up to 4 daily flights to London City Airport, some of which are operated on its own A220-100s and others are outsourced to Helvetic Airways which in most cases will use the smaller E190-E2. However, in days where demand spikes the airline will readily swap it for the larger E195-E2.

Due to its steep approach, London City Airport places high demands on both the aircraft and the specially trained cockpit crews. Helvetic Airways has both, and we are proud to be the first airline to bring the larger E195-E2 to London City Airport following its premiere with the Embraer E190-E2 in 2021. This makes us the only wet-lease operator in the world to land at London City with three different Embraer aircraft, allowing us to offer our wet-lease customers the greatest possible flexibility

Tobias Pogorevc, CEO of Helvetic Airways

What Restricts the Aircraft Types at LCY Airport?

I've written an entire post about the aircraft types that can land at London City Airport and why that is the case. In short though the airport is situated in a central location in London, in proximity to the city's financial district of Canary Wharf. Therefore, the approach and takeoff paths have very steeps angles, along with that the airport's runway isn't that long measuring only 1,508 meters or 1,948 feet. That means that few aircraft can tick all the boxes to operate flights there.

Restrictions not only limit the types of aircraft capable of landing at London's most central airport, but also the pilots allowed to do so. Many airlines don't allow just any of its pilots to take on the demanding landing sequence. They will only roster their most experienced crew which have undergone specific training.

The E195-E2 Could Unlock New Destinations for London City Airport

Embraer aircraft make up a massive chunk of London City Airport's operations. The Brazilian manufactured aircraft are the perfect size and have the right performance characteristics to do so. A staggering 75% of all flights at LCY are aboard Embraer produced planes. Therefore, this was also a fantastic promotional opportunity for the manufacturer to showcase its most advanced plane and put the spotlight on some soon to come features that could entice airlines to acquire the aircraft to operate out of London City Airport.

What I'm referring to is the E2 family, soon to come, Embraer Enhanced Takeoff System (E2TS). Much like ILS automatically lands an aircraft, E2TS will allow it to take-off automatically and improve the overall range by doing so. The range is optimized thanks to the aircraft's systems optimising thrust settings, climb rate and so on. Embraer states that it will extraxt up to 350 extra miles by introducing E2TS once it has cleared its certification process.

That means that, theoretically, airlines could operate flights from London City Airport to as far as:

• Istanbul
• Gran Canaria
• Casablanca
• Athens
• Cairo