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LUTON -8

Old 10th Dec 2013, 21:42
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Work finally started yesterday on the M1 Junction 10A link road- Airport Way upgrade. The upgrade will include increasing the road to 3 lanes in both directions from the M1 to Capability Green and the removal of Kidney Wood roundabout. A new bridge will be built to take the existing link road over a new road taking traffic between Luton and Harpenden
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Old 11th Dec 2013, 07:51
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Airport website down - loads a blank page.
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Old 12th Dec 2013, 08:41
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Luton Airport plans to increase passenger capacity to be heard at Luton council meeting next week | Local News in Luton, Dunstable and Bedfordshire
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Old 15th Dec 2013, 06:08
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Looks like the expansion might not be delayed after all

Luton Airport expansion decision is expected for next week - News - Herts Advertiser
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Old 15th Dec 2013, 08:39
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Quite a few Aeropostale 737 flights over the last few weeks - anyone know what they are in for - is it a regular operation?

The first couple were football related

The current program which runs until Dec 24th is flying for DHL
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Old 15th Dec 2013, 16:43
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Thanks, boeing_eng.
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Old 15th Dec 2013, 21:16
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Regardless of any improvements to road access, unless something is done about the terrible reputation LTN has for customer service, [see relevant websites for details] no-one will willingly want to use this airport.
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Old 15th Dec 2013, 21:36
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Is Luton's reputation really *that* bad ? It's not trying to compete with Heathrow for major intl carriers with premium passengers (El Al is simply an unusual niche) - the customer base is almost entirely LCCs. As long as service isn't too bad and the price is reasonable, Luton will continue to get the passengers - see the CAA stats for details.

If service levels are to be improved signficantly, I'd expect to see builders doing some major work on the terminal first
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Old 15th Dec 2013, 23:22
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Grrr

Great Britain is not very good at Customer Service. Management spout off that we are, but sadly we are not.

We do have a few that are good.

wowzz, most folk look at price rather than if folk in the Tinminal will kiss ya ass to pass through.

How about Links Air doing IOM & Jersey with a Jetscream?
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Old 16th Dec 2013, 04:54
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Location is also a factor. After Heathrow, Luton has the UK's second largest catchment area.

I see trees and bushes are being cleared around the M1 link road and some heavy equipment is already on site.

Not so good is that since the hard shoulder came into use between junction 13 and Junction 10 the painless task of getting onto the M1 in the morning rush hour is over. Long queues on the link road will remain once it is upgraded as the M1 is often at a standstill Southbound.
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Old 16th Dec 2013, 08:23
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Why on Earth would anyone consider building a new Hub Airport in either the Thames Estuary or in Kent is beyond me. It would cost just as much for a train ticket as a flight ticket!

Any new runway at Heathrow will entail a flight path over London!

Gatwick is too far south!

Stansted is too far east!

Birmingham is too far North!

But Luton ...
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Old 16th Dec 2013, 08:36
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But STN has most if not all the infrastructure in place for coping with growth in the London area:


Long runway, suitable for long haul
High speed taxi ways
Loads of parking space
Rail link
Road link
Terminal that can be extended
Plenty of space for development.
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Old 16th Dec 2013, 08:55
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Except passengers don't seem to want to use the place unless the fare is £4.99 or below. Take way Ryanair and what have you got left?

It does seem a little strange as Stansted is a very good airport but that debate is best on the Stansted thread and not here.
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Old 16th Dec 2013, 22:53
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It should be noted that in addition to Luton's current field an area approximately 2 miles by 3 miles lays flat, south of the current runway! Plenty of room for 3 or 4 runways.

I estimate less than 100 dwellings would have to be moved.

Change the runway headings to 09/27 then Stevanage town and Caddington would not have to be overflown.
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Old 17th Dec 2013, 04:41
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So basically build a new airport at Luton. I quite like the Hertfordshire countryside south of the airport, the same as residents around Gatwick and Stansted like their countryside.

Expand Luton? Yes, but only to a certain point.
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Old 17th Dec 2013, 06:13
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NOVEMBER PASSENGER FIGURES

A total of 630,291 paasengers used Luton in November a rise of 2.1 per cent on November 2012. Rolling 12 month figure is 9,672,937 up 0.6 per cent.
Edinburgh has taken over the fifth busiest airport position from Luton on a 12 month basis now having some 40,000 extra passengers with Birmingham some 750,000 less passengers than Edinburgh. So much for Mr Kehoe calling for 70 million passengers as Heathrow“s overspill!
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Old 17th Dec 2013, 08:53
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Have to agree, The area south of the Airport is actually quite gorgeous and a wildlife haven.. A Whole new airport built across it would be crazy. Doubt Herts or Beds council would want it truly either.

Why is a whole new airport required, Put the money into making this one work. There is plenty of room available all over the place if they organized the layout properly. We have been over this a bazillion times though its getting so tedious.

If they were going to spend all that money building a new airport just south (which would involve untold amounts of landfilling) then they could spend the money on the current location filling in the land bringing everything level and having even more space to use.

Some days there are hours and hours without an Airline movement.. Luton is not full, Its just poorly utilized.
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Old 17th Dec 2013, 10:16
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NOVEMBER PASSENGER FIGURES

This was inevitable that EDI would overtake LTN at some point, as the fifth busiest airport and they are likely to secure this position further in 2014...

As well as general passengers numbers, EDI need congratulating on pulling in some pretty big fish airlines which begin new routes next summer, like US Airways to Philly, United to Chicago, Qatar to Doha and some new routes with Scandanavian Ailrines.

I think the main thing for LTN is to just secure their exisiting business and keep passenger numbers as they are (give or take a few thousand) and any new routes or airlines that come along are a bonus. As we know from about five years back, when passsenger numbers did reach 10 million, the passenger experience was impacted in the terminal and we haven't seen much in the way to ease this or make this any better. So if numbers were to rise dramatically in the short term we would be back in a similar situation.

Hopefully when the latest expansion plans finally kicks off, the airport can then fourish again and see a big rises similar of the late nineties and early noughties!

Last edited by gilesdavies; 17th Dec 2013 at 16:29.
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Old 17th Dec 2013, 13:45
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The plans cover a lot of the needed issues:

Full length taxiways and high speed exits - they will improve safety and efficiency, reducing delays, pollution, costs and missed approaches;

Improved road access - need I say more?

Increase numbers of stands;

Increased departure lounge space and shops;

Improved security area;

Improved short term parking.

What hasn't been mentioned is doing anything about the embarrassingly shabby arrivals/immigration/baggage reclaim areas and the appalling walkways and "bike shacks" for stands 1L-10. The halls need more than a refurbishment and proper buildings need to replace the octogon and white shed, and weatherproof corridors to each stand should be built so that passengers don't have to be exposed to winter weather while waiting for boarding on stands 1-4. There also needs to be a passage from the new extended departure lounge to near Bar 10 to avoid the ridiculously long walk currently needed to the main apron gates.

It would also be handy if the airport ops department would get the bizjet operators to improve their efficiency - they are so bad for traffic flow with their slow taxying, slow back-tracks or vacating, gash RT clogging frequencies, un-necessary full-length departures and sloppy arrival planning needing extended track miles and getting in the way of commercial aircraft. I wouldn't want to see them pushed away as they're a big financial asset to the airport and area, but they need to be less disruptive to other operators.
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Old 17th Dec 2013, 20:08
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Grrr

For quite a number of bizjet pilots, their familiarity with Luton is limited, this could account for their slower pace compared to the fast life of a LoCo?

Once -upon-a-time, the bizjets earned Luton airport more (kept) income per plane than a full easyJet.
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