London City Airport (LCY) has decided to go it alone with the development of a new business aviation facility, having failed to reach agreement with any of the 10 or so FBO groups known to have bid for a proposed build-and-operate deal. In an August 17 statement, privately owned LCY said that the new London City Airport Jet Centre will be open early next year, offering full handling services to the growing number of business aircraft using the downtown gateway.
As of early last month, Signature Flight Support was understood to be the only remaining contender in the bidding for the new FBO. According to sources involved in the process, some nine other companies had their bids rejected or had withdrawn their offers, leaving the LCY management to negotiate exclusively with Signature, which also has FBOs at Luton, Southampton and Oxford Airports, as well as at Paris Le Bourget.
