LUTON

[CAP493]

Originally Posted by Cahlibahn

Can anyone update me on the road traffic situation? Not used LTN since the roadworks started but need to be there about 06:00 next Friday. Should I allow extra time?

Not sure if you meant today (April 14th) or 21st but...M1 is slow northbound and southbound but before 6am unless some idiot crashes in the roadwaorks, it's pretty much OK. Ditto the adjacent roads. But if traffic's light, beware exceeding the motorway's temp 40mph speed limit: the peelers are using average speed digital cameras and so making an absolute mint out of speeding motorists during the early and late hours when you can still speed!

[Irish Steve]

Originally Posted by Powerjet1

Airport management reporting that LTN will see 115,000 pax over the four day easter period(14th to 17th), up 15% on easter 2005.

And it seems that they've lost the plot big time. Some of my family were booked on an early FR to Dublin a couple of days ago. They left Milton Keynes with 2 Hrs 45 before departure, and at that time of the morning, MK to Luton is about 30 minutes. A combination of an accident on the A5, and 40, yes FORTY minutes waiting for a bus from the car park to the terminal meant they were denied boarding on the flight. OK, it was an early morning flight, but that length of time between buses is a SERIOUS problem that needs to be addressed urgently!

[CAP493]

...40, yes FORTY minutes waiting for a bus from the car park to the terminal meant they were denied boarding on the flight. OK, it was an early morning flight, but that length of time between buses is a SERIOUS problem that needs to be addressed urgently!

Indeed it is - so did they/you make any representations to LLAO about this? For example, did anyone raise the matter with the duty Airport Manager? If nothing was/is said, then the issue couldn't/won't be investigated or corrected.

[King Pong]

Was it a NCP controlled carpark or one of the many off airport companies?

[Irish Steve]

Not sure yet, it's "up for discussion" later this evening, and I will try and get the specifics and make sure that it is reported. I think it's the "official" car park, but not sure yet on that.

[Powerjet1]

Maybe only temporary, but Luton-Angers seems to have gone from the booking system on the Aer Arran website. Was meant to start 15 may.

[WOWBOY]

Also Birmingham-Liege and Liege-Loreint have also dissapeared from the booking system!

[Buster the Bear]

Has anyone actually seen any local advertising for this route?

Probably a computer glitch, or is it the Luton 'Kiss of Death'?

Styrian, Volare.........

Anyway, there will be FlySilverJetFirst with their mega fleets of Boeing's to fill the void! If this lot have any sense, they will build their own 'Tinminal' and avoid the Luton Low cost SLUM!

No wonder Silverjet think that they can succeed, can you imagine 'holidaying' folk putting up with the cheap facilities at Luton on offer now, 20 years ago?

If SilverFlyJetFirst offer quality at a reasonable price, then they cannot fail to entice the folk with money, the Silver Surfer Flyer's, not the Diet 'Coke' snorting addicted youth!

The IT market has turned itself around realising this.

Quality has a price and some folk are prepared to pay for it!

[Bumz_Rush]

Luton-Gibraltar Monarch

The published timetable does not include winter services to Gibraltar from Luton, and looking deeper Manchester Gibraltar has the last flight on 19th July, according to the on line booking facility.

I spoke to a Monarch crew last week, and they had no information. I will be ZB LTN-GIB tuesday, so will ask at GIB, they have more information usually.

Bumz

[CAP493]

...can you imagine 'holidaying' folk putting up with the cheap facilities at Luton on offer now, 20 years ago?

Come on Buster - what 'cheap' facilities are you talking about? And what yardstick are you using to make this criticism? The new facilities are a significant improvement on what was provided when the Council had a direct hand in the day-to-day operation and strategic planning at Luton. Whilst these might not compare favourably with say, Stansted, the two are not comparable since STN is run by BAA (STAL) which has always cross-subsidised that airport aand so had access to vastly more funding than historically, has LLAO. STAL is also, not hamstrung by a concession agreement that sees a significant slice of its income drawn off without any benefits accruing.

The improvements at LTN - whilst not perfect in every way - have been achieved despite the Government and despite the local Council.

Issues that are frequently highlighted as being poor include:

• Lack of seating in Pier 'A'

This is entirely due to the Council's idiotic planning stance ("If sufficient seats were to be provided, it would effectively increase the terminal's capacity and so require additional planning permission").

• State of car parks

One third of one car park will disappear when the new approach road is completed and one third will disappear when the parallel taxiway to serve runway 08 is constructed.There is no point in resurfacing these areas. One car park will disappear entirely when the new Southeast Apron is constructed. There is no point in resurfacing it. And if a multi-story car park is constructed, then the remaining short-term car parks may become redundant anyway.

• The approach roads are congested and crap

Long-awaited improvements are now underway for completion by the end of 2008. The hold-up was entirely due to the DfT and local Council.

• The train station is too far away

The time taken to connect between the terminal and Luton Airport (Parkway) Station - nominally 10 minutes - compares favourably with the time required to connect between Gatwick's North Terminal and the Gatwick Airport Station. At peak times it's true that it takes longer but this will be resolved once the road system has been upgraded - see comments above.

• Baggage reclaim delays are sometimes horrendous

No worse than at STN and at LGW on occasions (see posts elsewhere for ample evidence). In any event, the alterations to the 'old' terminal will address this issue and deliver a significant improvement.

I could go on, but would probably be 'moderated' for the length of my post.

As to what was provided 20+ years ago - it was even for the time, pretty make-shift and mediocre, and this standard continued right up until the new terminal was constructed, primarily because the Council and Airport management involved were all stuck in a 1980s mental time-warp and totally failed to see what was happening around them, hence the catestrophic loss in business. The Council to an extent, still remains stuck in this mental time-warp.

ACDL is not I can assure you, unaware of what's required to create and run a state-of-the art 21st Century international airport: its Project 2030 proposals amply demonstrate this. Only the tortuous UK planning process and NIMBYism will prevent the project succeeding, meanwhile staged improvements to the existing facilities and site are being undertaken provided these will not be rendered superfluous if/when the 'new' airport is built.

10 million pax can't all be wrong...

[King Pong]

The approach roads are congested and crap
Long-awaited improvements are now underway for completion by the end of 2008. The hold-up was entirely due to the DfT and local Council.

OK so something is being done to the local roads but what about the airport controlled central area? Something really has to be done about the traffic chaos here. It can be OK for much of the day then there is instant gridlock due to the sheer number of cars parked in the drop off area. The Friday before Easter at around 6pm the tailback extended all the way the down the hill to the A505. It was taking over 30 minutes for traffic at the end of the queue to reach the terminal. This then had the knock on effect of paralysing the shuttle service to the station as all 3 coaches were stuck in the congestion. The result of all this was that the service to the station that is meant to operate every 10 minutes was thrown out of the window as coaches to and from the station as well as the car park coaches were not turning up. I wonder how many people missed their flights that evening?

Why is it that management at the airport just hasn’t got the will to keep the traffic moving? Just try parking outside the terminals at Heathrow and see how long it takes before a traffic warden pounces yet at Luton you can park in the drop off area all day and nothing is done if you stay with your car. Even when the airport did employ traffic wardens they would turn a blind eye to cars parked if their drivers stayed with the vehicle yet it is these drivers that cause all of the problems. If the drop off area no parking rules were enforced there would be no congestion.

What is the point on spending £25 million on a new duel carriageway when it can still take over half an hour to travel the last half mile?

[Powerjet1]

Having not passed through the airport in the last 6 weeks, what is the state of play regarding the new check-in (self-service ?) desks around the old outsize baggage area. Are they open or has nothing happened yet ?.

[King Pong]

I was up the airport yesterday and can report that the boarding has now been taken down and that the 10 desks which are numbered 201-210 look like they are complete and ready to go. The desks and belts are identical in appearance to the existing 60 desks but each new desk has only one LCD screen above it instead of 2. Airport signage now reflects the new check-in area with arrows pointing towards desks 201-210

There is still a little work that needs to be carried out in the surrounding area. The agent’s desk opposite check-in 1-4 have been reduced in size to allow maybe a straight queue of around 12-15 people to line up for some of the new desks that extend out of the existing check-in area with the last desk being located by the bar. This queuing area still needs to be tidied up and the ceilings need finishing around what was the left luggage room, which was located next to the bar.

There is nothing to indicate that this is nothing more than a conventional check-in area but I would have assumed that passengers for smaller aircraft like the 146, ATR 72 and maybe the new 767 limited seating service to New York would only use these desks. Even with a small queue of say 10 people with luggage it will be difficult for checked in passengers to get past as they head for departures. I watched yesterday 4 people with oversized luggage head past these desks as they went to the relocated outsized luggage area. I can’t see how they would have got past a queue if these desks were open.

I see that 15ft high boarding is being erected on the edge on the service road by easyjet’s new hangar. Not sure why it needs to be so high or what will be behind it. Maybe the council don’t want an orange hangar so we will get an orange board instead or maybe it will be a new advertising horading.

[GLIDERMAN]

Aer Arran.

Originally Posted by Powerjet1

Maybe only temporary, but Luton-Angers seems to have gone from the booking system on the Aer Arran website. Was meant to start 15 may.

I saw Aer Arran were advertising in the Luton news recently for cabin crew to be based at luton.

[jetsetwilly]

Bunny Desks

The 'Bunny Desks' are just waiting for computer systems to be installed. The belt systems seem to be working fine. For the time being, they will be used as a contingency if the main belts go down.

JSW.

[OpsSix]

Personally I can't stand LTN. I've flown out of LTN, LHR, STN, LGW and BHX and LTN comes across as being cheap and badly thought out.

I've also worked at LTN, STN and LCY and having returned to LTN for work my thoughts on the place are no better.

[LTNman]

March figures - flights up, passengers down

ATM's 6344 up 7% Rolling year 76860 up 14.6%
Passengers 732062 down 1.1% Rolling year 9,183,267 up 15.5%

[LGS6753]

Pax down

Perhaps the reason for the small decrease in pax numbers is that this year Easter is well into April but last year it was at the end of March.

[Buster the Bear]

I e-mailed Arann about Angers and never got a reply, so I guess the route has failed before it has started?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I understand that XL.com or as we know it, Excel Airways are taking one of two Helios 737-800's on lease this summer.

GOXLB Boeing B738 5BDBH Acquired provisionally 01 May 06- 01 Nov 06

[Powerjet1]

Buster the Bear

Received an email from Aer Arran confirming that the new Luton-Angers service has been suspended (due to start on 16 May) because of 'aircraft capacity restrictions'. Don't know if the gap left by this will be taken up on another new route or an increase in freq on an exising service.