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
London International Airport Station London opened in 1950 to support a NATO Induction and Training Centre, later moved to Centralia. The station closed on 30 September 1958. As a tribute to this period, a Canadair T-33 aircraft in former Royal Canadian Air Force livery is mounted in front of the main terminal building. The airport has been continuously improved since World War II as navigation and air traffic control systems evolved, and as commercial aircraft became larger and larger. These improvements include: London International Airport Fire Crash and Rescue Station provides fire and rescue operations at the airport with three crash tenders based