LUTON - 6

[King Pong]

Not bad for a runway that still doesn't have full taxiways to each end or holding areas, nor even a 'loop' like London City and Leeds/Bradford

And with the current management not planning to add any nor spend money on the road network in the central area the full signs are about to go up due to a lack of investment.

[ebenezer]

The current management not planning to add any nor spend money

A well-placed 'mole' is suggesting that if agreement between LBC and LLAO can't be reached soon, the next wave a development (Harrods moving to the Cargo area, a new Cargo Apron, expansion of the Silverjet terminal and some other minor airside improvements) will definitely be the last and then all that the Spanish bosses will do is care and maintenance to meet any safety or CAA requirements. If this proves to be true, it'll be the 'writing on the wall' for Luton. Of course, it could just be LLAO playing poker with the Council but the sounds coming out of Madrid suggest that LBC has now pi**ed off the Spanish so much that it's almost reached a point of no return.
What a bunch of short-sighted and stupid people in the Town Hall. The accountants there had better begin planning their future without the cash that's been creamed off every year since 2000.

[antilla]

In what sense does a failure to expand as hoped spell doom for both the Airport and the Council? Surely the Council will manage to get by on its £12million each year, and the Airport won't be doing too badly if it manages 400 movements per day.

Why do you assume that the Airport will close down if it isn't allowed to expand? Can't it just continue at its present level of activity, which represents a five-fold increase in passenger numbers in the last dozen years?

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Industrial Action?

Is there any industrial action or anything else disruptive going on at Luton today?

A number of departures seem to have left several hours late and a Wizz has departed to Stansted.

[DONTTELLTHEPAX]

Air Asia X ???

Got this e-mail from AirAsiaX,
but looking at the website it shows STN on a route map
follow the link on there home page (Now everyone can fly Xtra).

Hi,

Thanks for your interest. However, AirAsia X will only be able to fly to London late next year, it won’t be anytime soon.

Assuming we go to London, Stansted or Luton are the airport of choice.

Best Regards,
Mohshin Aziz

[LTNman]

Is there any industrial action or anything else disruptive going on at Luton today?
A number of departures seem to have left several hours late and a Wizz has departed to Stansted.

No fuel due to a technical problem at Esso

[TUGNBAR]

Shell are now reported to be running low on fuel as they have been supporting some of the Esso customers.
Anyone know the root of the tech prob Esso have,or is a bad batch of fuel.
TNB

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Thanks LTNman.

Not good news all the same.

[LTNman]

Heard it third hand that they can’t pump fuel from their Luton storage facility at Luton into their tankers. Also heard that the problem still hasn’t been fixed.

[compton3bravo]

ebenezer

Can’t we get away from all this “political stuff” about the airport. Surely the main crux of running a company is to make a profit. There is no point in putting thousands of passengers through a terminal and getting no return because you have given an airline or airlines very generous discounts. You only have to look at the traffic figures at many UK airports over the last couple of months to see that passenger numbers seem to be stabilising, albeit only for a short while. There is no point in expanding your infrasctructure unless it is going to be used to its full effect.
Let us all get back to informing and discussing possible changes to airlines and aircraft that use the airport and if you want to talk about roads (which incidentally has absolutely nothing to do with the airport management) find a road transport thread!

[LTNman]

You only have to look at the traffic figures at many UK airports over the last couple of months to see that passenger numbers seem to be stabilising, albeit only for a short while. There is no point in expanding your infrasctructure unless it is going to be used to its full effect.

If that is the case I wonder why then that BAA are spending million$$ at Stansted???

I guess when they get their second runway they would never dream of trying to tempt airlines flying into Luton that they should use Stansted.

[Buster the Bear]

compton3bravo, you plainly are out of touch with reality? With the current concession arrangement, there is more chance of the airport being redeveloped into a low cost housing site for the Olympics, than wholesale massive expansion and I say this with no malice toward the airport. Folk who know me realise that I have Luton JetA1 running through my veins.

Whilst the incumbent Borough Council insist that they will not negotiate a sizable extension to the current concession period, only a mug would plough mega £millions into Luton as there is no chance of making a 'good return' on their investment over a short period of time.

Sadly, by the time Luton comes out of 'care and maintenance' the opposition will have absorbed even more.

Look up the M1, do you seriously think East Midlands would be considered the largest non Stansted UK base for a Ryan airline if it was not for the procrastination by the local politicians.

The only thing the local council are interested in, is selling off the costumes created for the washed out Carnival, and spending the £1.40 concession fee levied on both arriving a departing passengers.

Abertis have to maximise profits, so are unwilling to subsidise loss leaders which would mean capital infrastructure investment. Millions of 'additional' passengers may not equate to maximum profit.

[compton3bravo]

Thanks Buster the Bear for your interesting reply. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but I don’t think I am out of touch with developments or lack of them at the airport. I have watched with interest the ups, downs, ups and downs for close on 40 years and have worked in the aviation media for a number of years so I think, respectfully, I might know just a little about the workings of the airline industry.
As I say your reply was interesting but you had to spoil it at the end with a dig about the Luton Carnival which has no relevance to this thread.
Congratulations must be the order of the day for all in ATC for managing to accommodate nearly 400 movements in 24 hours.

[nickmanl]

Surely the fact that the airport is almost at bursting point and SilverJet, Ryan and Wizz are willing to put more business through the airport but for a lack of gates is a sign that there is a point to expand the infrastructure at Luton?

[CAP493]

Surely the fact that the airport is almost at bursting airport and SilverJet, Ryan and Wizz are willing to put more business through the airport but for a lack of gates is a sign that there is a point to expand the infrastructure at Luton?

Quite corect! But not unless the income generated meets ACDL's return-on-investment requirement: and it doesn't.

Why do you assume that the Airport will close down if it isn't allowed to expand? Can't it just continue at its present level of activity, which represents a five-fold increase in passenger numbers in the last dozen years?

No business can survive by standing still. The name of the game is development, adopting new initiatives, creating new markets, responding to new opportunities. You only have to look at Lydd and Southend for example, to see what years of inactivity has done. The idea that Luton can carry on regardless with no further development is just the sort of pie-in-the-sky thinking that infects the local Town Hall.

Can’t we get away from all this “political stuff” about the airport. Surely the main crux of running a company is to make a profit. There is no point in putting thousands of passengers through a terminal and getting no return because you have given an airline or airlines very generous discounts.

The charges levied by LTN are as competitive as those levied by STN. The problem is that it's a competitive market and to attract airlines into Luton necessitated competitive pricing. The Concession Fee payable to LBC makes the sums difficult to add up ~ it was always a wildy unrealistic deal anyway (and an arrangement never repeated elsewhere in the UK). Why else did the Consortium headed by Frankfurt Airport and the Consortium that included Copenhagen Airport both walk away back in 1999?

[nickmanl]

Perhaps showing my lack of knowledge on the subject, but does this deal expire soon? Surely it doesn't run and run!?

[Powerjet1]

Ryanair reinstating SNN, daily, after pulling the route in Oct 06. SNN based a/f. Will probably niggle Aer Arann a bit on GWY, which is no boubt the idea.

[Pain in the R's]

Read somewhere that executive jet movements at Farnborough are up 40%.
So is the congestion and road works on local roads and the M1 finally having an impact or is it that slots are now required 24/7 at Luton for these types of aircraft so putting off business folk or is Luton basically full?

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Just as many executive jet movements at Luton as ever. There are operators that seem to switch between the London "biz fields" from time to time but the overall position of exec jets at Luton shows no signs of tailing off.

I suspect that part of the increase in movements at Farnborough results from the large increase in based aircraft there - TAG Aviation in particular have added a significant number of aircraft over the past 12 months.

In any case, they will all come to Luton when they can't get weekend/bank holiday slots at Farnborough and the slots run out towards the end of the year at Northolt!!!!

[andyafc]

Good news concerning shannon coming back, hope theres many more to come after ryanair ordered more aircraft