London City Airport names ex Crossrail boss Rob Holden as new chairman

London City Airport on Monday appointed Crossrail’s ex-boss Rob Holden as chairman, in a move that may boost its efforts to get the Elizabeth Line extended.

Transport veteran Holden, who was chief executive of Crossrail from 2009-2011, has joined the board of the Square Mile’s favourite airport with immediate effect.

His appointment comes a month after London City airport supported a campaign group’s call for Crossrail to be extended to Ebbsfleet and a station at the airport to be added.

London City airport thinks that, although the site is traditionally used by customers from the City and Canary Wharf, there is growing demand from people in Kent and elsewhere in the capital to travel from there, and Crossrail would help that.

Holden replaces Sir Terry Morgan, who stepped down in September to take up the chairmanship at High Speed 2.

Holden is the chairman of the Submarine Delivery Agency and holds a number of non-executive roles, including at Electricity North West and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

He is also the former chair of HS1 and Eurostar UK.

The 62-year-old joins at a busy time for the airport, which is undergoing a £500 million redevelopment. By 2022 it will have eight new customer gates, and its passenger terminal will have quadrupled in size.

Robert Sinclair, chief executive of London City Airport, said: “Rob is hugely respected in the transport and infrastructure sectors, as well as across Whitehall.

His experience will be an invaluable asset as we take forward our development programme, improve surface access, welcome more passengers and airlines and plan for our long-term future.”

Hakim Drissi Kaitouni, chair of London City Airport’s appointments, praised Holden’s “breadth of experience in delivering significant national infrastructure projects”.

The airport is on track to host a record 4.7 million passengers this year.

Last month’s most popular routes were Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Dublin, and traffic was up 8.3% from October 2017.