Fingers Crossed at Tunnel for City Airport Boost

Thousands of users of the Blackwall Tunnel from the south east have their fingers crossed that an application from London City Airport to raise the limit of the number of flight movements per year from the current 80,000 to 120,000 will be successful. Several Kent residents are said to be eager for the increase, which would boost the number of flights and destinations available from the airport.

The joy at the proposal is not universal. Some groups, such as London City Airport - Fight The Flights oppose the change and have amassed (as of 8th May 2008) a massive 341 signatures to their on-line petition against the expansion out of the several thousand people they claim will be impacted by the change.

A frequent flyer and regular user of the Blackwall Tunnel from the leafy, opulent outer London Borough of Bexley told us "The Fight the Flights website is not aesthetically pleasing. There is a mixture of text colours, some of which are barely readable against the black background, an uncomfortable melange of normal, bold, and italic text, and low quality graphics. The contents are a mixture of truths, half-truths, scaremongering and some information which is just plain incorrect, such as the Fight the Flights claim that British Airways plan to introduce a "Boeing service" from City Airport to New York, when all aviation anoraks know that the aircraft involved would be an Airbus A318".

A close friend of a regular user of the Blackwall Tunnel told us "Travelling to London City Airport through the Blackwall Tunnel is a stimulating treat, combining the 19th century stunning engineering achievement of the Blackwall Tunnel with the 20th century stunning engineering experience of flight. To think we can experience both within a few minutes of each other in the 21st Century in East London is magnificent."