LUTON - 7
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Luton
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Reduced Demand or Increased Competition?
It is unfortunate, that airlines continue to reduce domestic services from Luton. As an example passenger levels for October to the IOM from Luton were down 32% when compared to last year (loss of 631 pax) whilst Gatwick increased by 32% to handle an extra 3,532 pax which possibly is due to Easyjets new service. 'Reduced demand' therefore is misleading? Luton's management need to offer 'real incentives' to attract new carriers before we end up as London's white elephant!
November provisional stats:
ATMs (v LY)
November 4,852 (+4.1%)
Rolling year 71,945 (no change)
Passengers (v LY)
November 617,432 (+3.2%)
Rolling year 9,615,526 (+1.8%)
Comparators:
EDI down
BHX up
STN further down.
ATMs (v LY)
November 4,852 (+4.1%)
Rolling year 71,945 (no change)
Passengers (v LY)
November 617,432 (+3.2%)
Rolling year 9,615,526 (+1.8%)
Comparators:
EDI down
BHX up
STN further down.
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STN further down
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Put your bets down for when it breaks the 10M again?
Sorry to sound pessimistic, but its not like so far we are seeing a whole raft of new destinations and additional capacity being added to the airport.
We are seeing the usual tweaking of schedules for the summer, with easyJet offering new routes to Olbia and Mykonos, but like usual there doesn't seem to be any new aircraft and just cutting the schedules of other routes to accommodate these.
It doesn't look Adria are coming back next year to fly the Ljubljana service, also with loosing the Aer Arrann services and FlyBE cutting theres for several months. This will be a drop of several thousand a month.
If you look at the Thomson brochure, the flight programme for TOM doesn't look at busy as previous years. With fewer destinations and frequencies the the Costas, etc...
I think Wizzair is likely to be the only airline to grow at the airport next year, and to be fair to them I think this will be less than previous years, they are focussing growth at present out of Budapest... To continue their dominance as a replacement to the now defunct Malev and replace some the Ryanair routes, after the airline reduced their services from there recently.
I do however notice Monarch are continuing the Rome and Munich services. But again, I don't think their is additional metal to fly these routes and just a tweak in the schedules.
Last edited by gilesdavies; 17th Dec 2012 at 21:30.
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You can have too much of a good thing. I think Luton is ticking along nicely in most areas and passenger numbers are around the right level to max out the terminal for some of the time without causing too much overcrowding. Spare capacity will be needed when work starts next year on upgrading the airport as no doubt there will be areas closed off for building work.
The airport needs to look at why Gatwick is so popular when all things are equal in getting to and from both airports, as it is clear that passengers have a clear preference for Gatwick over Luton and it isn’t difficult to see why.
One area of concern for me is the airports rail link. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, London City and Southend all have stations at the airport while Luton does not but these airports are not without issues.
Gatwick with its two terminals means that many passengers have to catch a shuttle train to swap terminals so they can get to the station. As the shuttle runs every few minutes this isn’t a big deal but it still adds to the total travel time as there is another component to their journey.
Stansted involves an extended rail travel time for what is basically just a 32 mile trip to the capital.
Southend is even worse with even a longer journey in both distance and time and a service that many passengers just can’t use because the rail operator only operates for around 18 hours a day in each direction with no early or late services.
Then we come to Luton with its 24/7, 7 trains an hour rail service to the capital with a travel time in as little as 22 minutes and a direct link to London stations that most airports can only dream of. The big issue is the shuttle bus. There used to be 4 high density flexi -busses used for the service and it used to be free. Now it is down to just 2 flexi-busses with 2 standard busses and the cost is £2. Gone are the days of just jumping on the bus as many passengers who don’t buy through tickets have to queue to buy a bus ticket.
Also while the airport station can be reached non-stop in 22 minutes this is an hourly service operated by East Midland trains. This needs at least doubling in frequency as the service is so good.
Both these issues seem to be the airports weak link.
The airport needs to look at why Gatwick is so popular when all things are equal in getting to and from both airports, as it is clear that passengers have a clear preference for Gatwick over Luton and it isn’t difficult to see why.
One area of concern for me is the airports rail link. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, London City and Southend all have stations at the airport while Luton does not but these airports are not without issues.
Gatwick with its two terminals means that many passengers have to catch a shuttle train to swap terminals so they can get to the station. As the shuttle runs every few minutes this isn’t a big deal but it still adds to the total travel time as there is another component to their journey.
Stansted involves an extended rail travel time for what is basically just a 32 mile trip to the capital.
Southend is even worse with even a longer journey in both distance and time and a service that many passengers just can’t use because the rail operator only operates for around 18 hours a day in each direction with no early or late services.
Then we come to Luton with its 24/7, 7 trains an hour rail service to the capital with a travel time in as little as 22 minutes and a direct link to London stations that most airports can only dream of. The big issue is the shuttle bus. There used to be 4 high density flexi -busses used for the service and it used to be free. Now it is down to just 2 flexi-busses with 2 standard busses and the cost is £2. Gone are the days of just jumping on the bus as many passengers who don’t buy through tickets have to queue to buy a bus ticket.
Also while the airport station can be reached non-stop in 22 minutes this is an hourly service operated by East Midland trains. This needs at least doubling in frequency as the service is so good.
Both these issues seem to be the airports weak link.
Last edited by LTNman; 18th Dec 2012 at 05:32.
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On the positive side, Are not El AL increasing capacity?
Also met with a friend on Sunday who had a great experiance with Wizz & Luton airport. He lives in Reading and uses all London airports all of the time on business (not Luton in the past). From arriving at gate to stepping into his car parked at a friends house in South Luton he said was 20mins! He said he has told his company to use Luton more has he was very impressed compared with LHR & LGW! Ok he had no hold luggage and was lucking having free parking a couple of miles away but he said he would spread the word, he works for a multi-national with 5K plus UK employees.
Also met with a friend on Sunday who had a great experiance with Wizz & Luton airport. He lives in Reading and uses all London airports all of the time on business (not Luton in the past). From arriving at gate to stepping into his car parked at a friends house in South Luton he said was 20mins! He said he has told his company to use Luton more has he was very impressed compared with LHR & LGW! Ok he had no hold luggage and was lucking having free parking a couple of miles away but he said he would spread the word, he works for a multi-national with 5K plus UK employees.
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On the positive side, Are not El AL increasing capacity?
Last edited by Powerjet1; 18th Dec 2012 at 09:14.
Flew from Luton for the first time in many years this week and landed last night.
Thoughts: -
Fairly pleasant check in and departure areas, security was reasonably smooth despite being a very busy time (morning of 24th Dec). However, duty free and eating areas did not have enough seats to accommodate everyone and people were forced to sit on the floor. Gate areas as I would expect from a Lo-Cost base (like Liverpool).
Arrivals made it look like a third world airport. A longish external walk in the cold wind to a door, then up stairs to a shabby corridor and down stairs again to a bare UK Border hall. Welcome to the UK?? It seems domestic arrivals have a better route, but how many domestic arrivals are there?
Why no covered walkway to the car parks. In both directions we were cold and/or wet walking to/from the terminal. If Liverpool can manage a multi-storey, surely Luton can?
Thoughts: -
Fairly pleasant check in and departure areas, security was reasonably smooth despite being a very busy time (morning of 24th Dec). However, duty free and eating areas did not have enough seats to accommodate everyone and people were forced to sit on the floor. Gate areas as I would expect from a Lo-Cost base (like Liverpool).
Arrivals made it look like a third world airport. A longish external walk in the cold wind to a door, then up stairs to a shabby corridor and down stairs again to a bare UK Border hall. Welcome to the UK?? It seems domestic arrivals have a better route, but how many domestic arrivals are there?
Why no covered walkway to the car parks. In both directions we were cold and/or wet walking to/from the terminal. If Liverpool can manage a multi-storey, surely Luton can?
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Hopefully your issues will be addressed during the airports expansion work which should start in 2013. There are certainly new seating areas being created airside once the terminal is expanded and work will also be carried out in the arrivals to also expand that area.
Last edited by LTNman; 31st Dec 2012 at 18:55.