But at least STN doen't look like a building site like LTN has for the last 25 years
The only time LTN had decent drop off points for the passengers was way back in the 70's and early 80's when you could literally leave your car at the front of the terminal, go inside and check in, then return to the car to park it in one of the long term car parks. I know this to be true, I did it and returned to fetch said MGB GT to find someone had dinged it whilst I was inside
Things have obviously moved on since those days when Monarch had 1-11's and BMA used a Viscount to Jersey (lol) but lets face it, the layout of LTN now is just awful
Im an LTN fan, but have to agree with these very valid comments!
LTN over the last 10-15yrs has been a patchwork of cost saving extensions and add-ons, constantly plugging the gaps within the infastrusture they have! I know airports are not designed to look all that attractive, but as I have stated before the Central Terminal Area, just looks a mess too, with this hodgepodge of dated buildings.
In the now defunct masterplan, I now think the airport should have been totally rebuilt over the southern side of the runway. The airports CTA cannot really continue in the long term (10yrs +) on the current site it has without major redevelopment.
The existing Apron and Hangars are what causes the airport the most headaches when it comes to extending where it sits now!
I rember back in the 1990's there were plans for a futuristic Transport Interchange for the town and airport, I tink roughly where LTN Parkway stands now and all passengers would access the airport here and then be transported to the main terminal by monorail or some other form of people movers...
But it is not just LTN in this situation it is many other UK airports too, we just seem to have this philosophy in this country of making do with what we have and never planning for the long term! The M1 is a good example, the M1 shold have been four lanes in each direction over 20yrs ago, and it wasn't until the situation reached critical the government decided to act. But instead of installing 4 lanes we should maybe have looked at 5 lanes to ensure the motorway can accomodate the additional traffic for the next 20yrs plus without further major redevelopment!