Airport was a complete disaster last night... Landed around midnight, we were to park in one of the remote stands opposite the multistorey car parks/drop off zones. There was no ground staff awaiting the aircraft upon landing, and we was blocking the taxiway, as the aircraft could not park on the stand without ground crew to guide the aircraft in.
After about 15 mins it was clear we was blocking other aircraft on the taxiway, so the airport sent their own staff to guide the aircraft into the stand, once we was on stand and parked, the airport staff disappeared in their pick-up and the captain came on to say they had no ground staff available and would keep us updated. Around 1:10am, steps were finally brought up to the aircraft, but the ground crew vanished again.
The captain came on again to advise even though we had steps, the airport only had one bus operating on the airfield to take passengers to the terminal and there were three aircraft ahead of us for passengers to be taken to the terminal.
We were finally allowed off the aircraft at 1:45am, then took 50 minutes to clear border control as was a total mess too, all e-gates were closed, and queues were merging into each other as people approach border control from the old terminal gates and the newer eastern apron gates. Fortunately I had hand luggage only, but as I left the terminal at 2.40am, baggage from our aircraft had still not reached the reclaim belts.
The Captain was brilliant, walking through the aircraft keeping everyone updated. But the crew just looked totally fed-up and said this was happening on numerous occassions over the last few weeks. As the bus took us to the terminal, I counted three other aircraft with all the internal lights on and people moving around inside the aircraft with no steps, so can only assume they were in a similar situation too!
Not quite the rosie story, the airport paints about the airport all being ready for the summr rush!
Luton Airport is ready for summer rush says boss - BBC News
Missed my last EMR train going north, and ended up only getting as far Bedford, and then a hefty taxi for the remainder of the journey.