Although more services from established carriers would be welcome at Luton, runway capacity is at times now beginning to bite.
Once again this month there have been several occasions when the airport company's declared hourly runway movement rate (32/hour) has been reached because of a combination of airline schedules and charters (passenger & cargo) which are all 'coordinated' and a large number of corporate aircraft movements which currently, are not.
LLAO's FBOs (Signature Flight Support & Harrods Business Aviation) are continually bringing in more corporate business which is gradually taking up any slack that's available during the airport's 'busy' hours. Whilst it's a long way from being in the situation that LGW and STN are in for peak-time slots, at the present growth rate (movements - not passengers) runway availability at peak times may not for much longer, be freely available.
Then there's the issue of the adjacent airspace capacity and the unhelpful interaction of many of Luton's departure routes with routes from some other London airports/airfields for which there are no improvements on the horizon for at least two-and-a-half to three years.
In reality therefore, whilst there's scope for perhaps a 10% overall increase in business i.e. runway movements, until changes to the airspace and the addition of full-length parallel taxiways, holding areas and other surface improvements are in place, it's doubtful that Luton could efficiently cope with a dramatic increase such as might occur if another airline operator decided to base several aircraft at the Airport.
