I’m up this morning at 03:39 ready for the taxi to come and take me to the airport. Nothing new you might say, and normally you’d be correct. However, today I’m not flying anywhere!

Rather, I have been offered the chance of a behind-the-scenes view of how an airport wakes up to the world, gets ready for the day ahead and then actually processes all those planes we travellers are used to just turning up and getting on to, to take us to far away places.

Some weeks ago London City Airport contacted BoardingArea and offered the chance of a visit to the airport to see how it actually gets those planes out. I jumped at the chance, although as the taxi took me through the East End of London I wondered what I had let myself in for.

Before I left I did check out the new LCY web site and had seen changes since the last time I had been there – it looked more modern, was smarter in what it offered and had lots of good, real news stories about changes at the airport.

As you may have read, I am a lover of the BA flight from London City to New York – indeed I am booked on it next Thursday – and so it was too good a chance to miss.

Over the next few days I am going to post about my experiences with each of the teams that allowed me to interrupt their work, and who, with a generosity of character that was total, talked to me about their role in aviation and let me ask inane questions without ever losing their patience.

 

Part 1 – Ops Team – waking up a sleeping giant!

Part 2 – Ramp Control – a tale of skis and teams

Part 3 – ATC – How many planes are there above us?

Part 4 – Fire Service – A job for only the brave