London City Airport serving the London area—after Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton—and was the 14th-busiest in the UK in 2017. The airport was first proposed in 1981 by Reg Ward, who was Chief Executive of the newly formed London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) that was responsible for the regeneration of the area. He in turn discussed the proposal with Sir Philip Beck (Chairman of John Mowlem & Co plc) and the idea of an airport for Docklands was born. By November of that year Mowlem and Bill Bryce of Brymon Airways had submitted an outline proposal to the LDDC for a Docklands STOLport
S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport it captured Kaunas Fortress. Used continuously since then it is the oldest functioning airport in Lithuania, making it also one of the oldest airports in Europe. The airport area underwent major upgrades in 1926, 1931, 1942 (800 m. concrete runway with taxiways, repair hangars built), 1950's (concrete runway extension to 1330 m.) and 1970's (passenger terminal, navigation equipment). During the Interwar period, when Kaunas was Lithuania's capital, Aleksotas Airport was used as primary base of Lithuanian Air Force. It also served as test ground for locally built airplanes, like Dobi I, Dobi II, Dobi III by Jurgis Dobkevičius, Anbo I,