London's City Airport is expecting a slowdown in passenger growth this year as the global financial crisis takes its toll, but still expects a 12 to 15 percent jump to around 3.4 million travelers. “It's slower but it's not going backwards,” the airport's Chief Executive Richard Gooding told Reuters in an interview, adding that 2007 growth was 23 percent. “The froth has come off it ... but you tell me when the current financial crisis is going to end and I'll tell you when passenger numbers will really start growing again,” he said, noting City expected to treble in size to 9 to 10 million passengers a year in 25 years. City airport - a favorite of the London investment banking community due to its proximity to financial centers in the City and docklands - is more sensitive to corporate habits as 70 percent of its passengers are business travelers. Gooding said it was unclear whether the consumer spending downturn would also have an impact, as many holidaymakers would have bought their tickets well in advance. “If we see a downturn in leisure travel it will be later in the year,” he said. City Airport hosts airlines flying to short haul routes in Europe such as Geneva, Copenhagen and Edinburgh, with Air France-KLM its biggest carrier. But Gooding said a new British Airways business class-only route to New York planned for next year could shape the future of the airport, as it could pave the way for more ‘medium haul' travel to locations such as Dubai and Moscow. “It's a very interesting and innovating thing to do ... it opens up a number of new horizons for us which otherwise would not have been there,” Gooding said, adding that he thought BA would be more of a success than recent business-class only failures such as SilverJet because of the established brand name. City is one of the two London airports not part of the Spanish-owned BAA monopoly that controls Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, and Gooding said he supported calls for a break-up of the company. The industry veteran, who has also run the other non-BAA London airport at Luton, said separate owners would do a better job for the passenger - a stance echoed by a Competition Commission report published earlier this year. “We've never been in favour of a joint ownership. We think separate ownership of some or all of BAA would be in the consumer's interest and national interest. It could even delay the need for new runways,” he said, adding that individual owners would make better use of existing assets.
