easyLuton
EASYJET SET TO QUIT LUTON AIRPORT?
If no-frills airline EasyJet is successful in its bid to buy its Stansted-based rival Go, insiders say that within a year of the deal being signed, EasyJet will try to quit its Luton Airport base and transfer the bulk of its operation to Stansted Airport in Essex and Gatwick Airport in Surrey.
An EasyJet manager who declined to be named said that the airline which has been based at Luton Airport since it was formed in 1995 has outgrown the Bedfordshire airport which despite its new terminal building, has failed to keep pace with demand and customer expectations.
“The airport management at Luton just doesn’t seem to grasp the fact that it’s competing with the likes of Gatwick and Stansted airports for the low-cost airline business and the facilities and services it offers are just not up to the standard of its competitors” the manager said recently, adding “low-cost doesn’t automatically have to mean low standards.”
Claiming that TBI, Luton’s owners seem unable to recognise that the airport is not an attractive alternative to other London airports, the manager said “It takes longer at Luton to process a planeload of our passengers than it does to process a jumbo-jet planeload at Gatwick. Luton Airport’s staff levels are ridiculously low, the place is still hopelessly inefficient and this all means that our passengers often face delays”.
It’s also claimed that improvements to the terminal buildings to provide weather protection for passengers walking to and from the planes have still not been started despite a promise from airport bosses that the work would be completed by this Summer, and that plans to change the airport access road which is often grid-locked in rush hours, are still years away from completion.
EasyJet is reported to have offered up to £400M to buy Go, the former British Airways no-frills airline subsidiary and talks are at ‘an advanced stage’.
TBI which also owns Cardiff and Belfast airports, made a £21M profit last year. Earlier this year the Luton Airport’s antiquated ground radar equipment broke down forcing the airport to reduce the number of planes landing and taking off.