LUTON - 6

[Buster the Bear]

LTNman just think, whilst folk are missing their flights, they can marvel at the delights the town of Luton has to offer! All those £ millions pouring into the Town Hall coffers have been put to good use, you only have to visit Bury Park

[ebenezer]

I can’t believe the division route that has been chosen...

Alas, the cronies and turkeys in Luton's Town Hall have yet again, coc**d-up a project. LBC has admitted that it has over-run the timescale for the work on Airport Way and as a result has now committed "extra resources" to try to get the job finished instead, by mid-April. What a ruddy fiasco! This, combined with all the other detriments that currently blight LTN, must surely only serve to prove that the local council should in 2000, have sold off the site (like virtually every other airport-owning local council in the UK) and concentrated on what it does best - wasting council tax-payers' money, running council housing, collecting refuse and administering the town's car parks.

[CAP493]

Next weekend sees the worst congestion yet with Airport Way closed from Junction 10A of the M1.

No worse than during the final stages of the construction of the Stansted link to/from the M11. By then end of next year, Luton's road connection with the M1 will be greatly improved (albeit still no 'flyover' at Junction 10A), meantime the project is bound to cause disruption. What is lacking is any improvement in the road connections with the A1(M) to the east.

As I understand it, the airspace changes are out to consultation at the moment, so no final publication until closer to 2009.

No - the informal consultation will begin in September this year and immediately prior to this, MPs and local councillors will be briefed. The proposed changes should not be seen in the context of changes just to "Luton's" airspace - they are part of a much wider airsapce development to accommodate growth at Stansted (in line with Government policy) and the consequent need to remove as much as possible, the interaction of traffic to/from Luton and London/City. A spin-off is that this will also improve traffic flows into and out of these airports.

Europewide expansion to New York will become their priority

Perhaps over the long-term; but in the short to medium-term, Silverjet is looking to devlop additional routes from Luton including South Africa and the Middle & Far East. To this end, the additional 767s it will be acquiring will be either -200s with the uprated engines, or -300s.

[Powerjet1]

Maybe the fall in pax numbers of the last 2/3 months has finished. March showed a small increase of +0.3% to 733,949, so hopefully positive growth for the future, allbeit, on the small side.

[LTNman]

Luton Airport 'worse than third world'
12.04.07

Passengers have said immigration control at Luton Airport is worse than in Third World countries. The accusation came after a Devon councillor queued for two hours early on Sunday morning with 800 fellow travellers in a stuffy hall to get his passport checked.

Councillor Roy Turner, 61, said there was no information to tell tired flyers what was happening and no provision for people needing to sit down or go to the toilet. And when the easyJet customer finally reached the immigration desks he found there were only two officers to deal with the hundreds of delayed passengers.

Mr. Turner said: 'In almost 50 years of travelling I have never witnessed such as example of uncaring, inefficient and blundering bureaucratic ineptitude even in third world airports.'

Luton Airport bosses said they were not responsible for staffing levels at the immigration desks but they were now looking into how they could have improved the situation for waiting passengers.

http://www.uk-airport-news.info/luto...ews-120407.htm

[jetsetwilly]

Wait

"2 Hours" LMAO

JSW.

[King Pong]

Did anyone make it into the airport yesterday from the M1? I hear the traffic due to the closure of the A505 trunk road with its town centre diversion was pretty bad. There were road-closed signs at the start of Airport Way from the M1 but no barriers or cones, as access to Capability Green was not affected. Seems that many people ignored the signs only to make it to Capability Green and then had to queue all the way back again to the M1 before queuing to get into the town centre.

[CAP493]

Seems that many people ignored the signs...

Sounds like it's their own stupid fault, then!
One important issue with the traffic congestion that's being caused is whether or not the 'county' emergency services (fire/police/ambulance) are able to get to the Airport within the CAA/Home Office stipulated 'response times', given that even with blue lights and sirens, some of the roads e.g. the A505 via the so-called "East Luton Corridor" and Airport Way would be virtually impassable when road traffic grid-locks them during the rush hours. I suspect that perceived theory on this may be rather different in practice...

[Powerjet1]

Have not passed through the airport recently and wondered if work had started on any of the following...

1.Redevelopment of the cargo area/apron.
2.New coporate terminal facility for Harrods Aviation re hangar 129 etc.
3.Modification of South stands.

I'm sure all of the above were due to be finished by the autumn, but with the current probs between Abertis & LBC, are they going to happen?

[LTNman]

1. No
2. Don't think so
3. No
Will it happen this year? Yes
Once finished Silverjet will be parking their aircraft on the south stands.
One record that has been broken is that the POWERJET post is the first Luton post in 6 days. This is the longest gap since dedicated Luton threads have been started on PPRUNE.

[ebenezer]

This is the longest gap since dedicated Luton threads have been started on PPRUNE

Probably reflects the complete lack of any development or progress at LTN since last year (however, Planning Approval has been received by Harrods to convert Hangar 129 into their new offices).
Perhaps the most significant event to occur since Christmas is that with the unexpected departure of LLAO's Managing Director, her replacement - at least temporarily - is a Spanish guy who was previously AENA's head man at Madrid. If nothing else, this should shake things up a bit, but like the MD he's replacing, no doubt frustration with the Town Hall will set in pretty quickly when he realises just what he's up against.

[Buster the Bear]

A dedicated Luton hold

As I mentioned in previous posts:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1690728.ece

Sadly the airspace will provide the capacity that the airport is unlikely to be able to accommodate in 2009?

[LGS6753]

First Choice leaving?

The Bristol thread on this forum is reporting that the FCA aircraft will be withdrawn from Luton (presumably for S08, perhaps W07/8). This is a result of the TOM/FCA proposed merger.

[Buster the Bear]

Did an African 1-11 arrive this evening?

[LTNman]

yep, it was TZ-BSB.

Anyone know what those new masts by Echo and Delta are used for?

[vintage ATCO]

New Surface Movement Radar, not yet installed in the tower.

[pabely]

Jewish press today reporting Luton-Ben Gurion flights could start in the autumn by a LTN based Airline which used to have Royal Blue tails.

[nema/robin hood]

Here's the link...

http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/na...ontent_id=6152

[Buster the Bear]

A while back, there was also an orange interest.

[ebenezer]

Sadly the airspace will provide the capacity that the airport is unlikely to be able to accommodate in 2009?

The proposed airspace changes are not only aimed at improving the situation for Luton. The main purpose is to completely separate Luton's & Stansted's inbound flights so that they don't all end up holding in the same area, so enabling Stansted to expand in line with the government's policy, and to completely separate a number of Luton's & London City's outbound routes so these flights don't all converge in the Brookmans Park area. The other main purpose is to provide a 'new' route from the north of England, Scotland & N Ireland for flights coming into London City, Luton, Southend and Stansted - the airspace equivalent of wideneing the M1. All this is in line with the responsibility put on NATS to provide any necessary additional airspace capacity in line with the government's airport development policy.

So these airspace changes, subject to the usual consultations and discussions, and the CAA's approval will take place irrespective of whether or not LLAO and the local Council can sort things out and agree development that will allow Luton to benefit from the airspace changes.