Key information
Request reference number: MGLA201223-2495
Date of response:
Summary of request
Your request
Agreement and associated correspondence relating to the United Airlines promotion deal.
Our response
Promoting London at home and abroad is a key part of the Mayoralty and the Mayor makes no apologies for travelling to the US in May 2022 and saving taxpayers money on the flights. This visit was his first international mission since the start of the pandemic and an opportunity to encourage tourism to London and showcase the capital to businesses, investors, entrepreneurs and students in the world’s largest economy. In order to reduce the cost of the visit, the GLA secured an agreement for a group flight package with United Airlines, where only taxes and fees were payable. A copy of this agreement can be found here : Appendix 1 - Response from the Chief of Staff dated 1 Dec 2023.pdf (london.gov.uk)
This one-off agreement did not result in a formal partnership between the GLA and United Airlines.
In relation to part 2 of your request, please note that correspondence with United in relation to the Agreement is included on the above link. It is not clear from your request however, what (if any) further information you require. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed an appropriate cost limit. This is calculated at £450 based on 18 hours work at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described. To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope, eg. Specifying what correspondence you are interested in by providing some context, including a particular data range, named individuals and/or suggesting key words.