LUTON -8
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It might have been like this for a long time but I have just spotted that the run up bay is now floodlit. When did that happen and why? Could that stand in theory be used at night for passenger flights seeing that it is no further than the south stands if and when the south stands are full?
Last edited by LTNman; 13th Apr 2015 at 13:05.
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LTN vs STN
Had occasion to use STN for the first time in ten years and it made an interesting comparison with my more frequent use of LTN
STN departure experience dreadful. Separate lines for RYR cheque in (why not a snake like EZY at LTN) so a hold up in the line you have chosen is very frustrating. Security frenetic but no real difference between it and LTN. Both stressy. Departure currently very claustrophobic with IKEA style trek though the retail- dreadful, claustrophobic (no outside light) though accept only half finished. But it destroys the open feel Norman Foster wanted. No outside view except for a portion of the ramp from Weatherspoons "The Windmill". Much better view from the LTN terminal. Departure stand 87? Dark claustrophobic and fight with inbound pax to get to the gate- thought they had to be separated.
STN the better inbound experience. Brightness of the terminal retained, quick passport control, bag on the belt on arrival, bus to mid term waiting- ramp to car park in 35 minutes. No tacky walkways, plenty of space.
STN departure experience dreadful. Separate lines for RYR cheque in (why not a snake like EZY at LTN) so a hold up in the line you have chosen is very frustrating. Security frenetic but no real difference between it and LTN. Both stressy. Departure currently very claustrophobic with IKEA style trek though the retail- dreadful, claustrophobic (no outside light) though accept only half finished. But it destroys the open feel Norman Foster wanted. No outside view except for a portion of the ramp from Weatherspoons "The Windmill". Much better view from the LTN terminal. Departure stand 87? Dark claustrophobic and fight with inbound pax to get to the gate- thought they had to be separated.
STN the better inbound experience. Brightness of the terminal retained, quick passport control, bag on the belt on arrival, bus to mid term waiting- ramp to car park in 35 minutes. No tacky walkways, plenty of space.
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Run up Bay was always floodlit, but I guess you mean from above rather than at lower level?
'
The Company' seem to be getting their act together with far more frequent emails promoting the NYC link from Luton.
'
The Company' seem to be getting their act together with far more frequent emails promoting the NYC link from Luton.
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Yes tower lighting. A trench is now being dug for cabling that will cross delta. There is much going on in that part of the airport and has been for weeks with several diggers moving soil and raising the soil level up which I assume will be used for the taxiway extension at the 26 end. The strange thing is that I have never seen a truck bringing soil in from off airport.
The long term car park has been extended towards taxiway Delta to an area that some people here have speculated could be used for a new apron.
I have to say that I have never seen the airport so busy and it is only April. Just standing in arrivals there was a non stop stream of people coming through to the meeters and greeters area and there must have been around 50 people holding up signs from private hire companies. It reminded me of Heathrow.
Everything was moving including the heavy traffic and seemed very efficient with no holdups but the short term car park was full so cars were being redirected to the mid term car park. Now I have never seen that car park full before so that was a first.
The long term car park has been extended towards taxiway Delta to an area that some people here have speculated could be used for a new apron.
I have to say that I have never seen the airport so busy and it is only April. Just standing in arrivals there was a non stop stream of people coming through to the meeters and greeters area and there must have been around 50 people holding up signs from private hire companies. It reminded me of Heathrow.
Everything was moving including the heavy traffic and seemed very efficient with no holdups but the short term car park was full so cars were being redirected to the mid term car park. Now I have never seen that car park full before so that was a first.
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I see Tui have announced long-haul from Stansted starting next summer, shame they couldn't offer the routes from Luton as the 787 is more than capable! I am assuming that they are uising a dedicated airframe rather than buying seats from Thomas Cook?
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I see Tui have announced long-haul from Stansted starting next summer, shame they couldn't offer the routes from Luton as the 787 is more than capable! I am assuming that they are uising a dedicated airframe rather than buying seats from Thomas Cook?
I suppose however we need to take our Luton Fan Club hats off and put on our common sense ones... While it is feasible for 787-8 to operate out of Luton, looking at the below documents it would be a struggle for the aircraft to operate, without some restrictions off the current runway.
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/com...ps/787sec3.pdf
This is a reason why Thomson also had to stop operating long haul from Bristol.
I suppose we should be congratulating Stansted, as they are fighting tooth and nail to gain some long haul operators, with a lot of investment by MAG in this market. While these are not with a prestigious high profile airline offering daily scheduled services, they are keen to demonstrate they can handle and sustain long haul routes.
Talking of Thomson Airways in general from Luton, I do wonder if the airline is struggling with its base from the airport? Even though the airline still has a significant number on 757's , we don't see any of them operating out of Luton anymore and is a 737-800 base. During the winter the airline barely has one aircraft based here, and for the summer you see two for the whole season and a third only usually appears for June through to early September. We use to see three 757's based here all summer and two in the winter.
The airline also sells a good number of these seats on each flight to the Thomas Cook Group as they don't operate themselves from Luton, while operating far smaller aircraft than before which were used exclusively by the Thomson Group.
If you look at most other major regional UK airports, Thomas Cook and Thomson both have bases for summer to operate their own individual flight programmes.
Last edited by gilesdavies; 15th Apr 2015 at 11:07.
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The data on the link is for the -900 which Thomson do not operate. As I have stated before, Thomson can operate their 787 fleet off Luton's runway and I was quoted that Hawaii fully loaded is possible.
Having flown direct twice to Orlando on a 767-200, the 787 is far more capable.
Having flown direct twice to Orlando on a 767-200, the 787 is far more capable.
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Does anybody have a link to a source for Thomson starting long haul from Stansted? EDIT: Don't worry I have found one now.
As for a fully loaded 787 reaching Hawaii from Luton I have to say in my opinion that does seem a little far fetched even when you consider the improved performance of the aircraft. I expect it would have no trouble going full to Orlando or even somewhere a little further like Cancun.
As for a fully loaded 787 reaching Hawaii from Luton I have to say in my opinion that does seem a little far fetched even when you consider the improved performance of the aircraft. I expect it would have no trouble going full to Orlando or even somewhere a little further like Cancun.
Last edited by adfly; 15th Apr 2015 at 11:04.
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Does anybody have a link to a source for Thomson starting long haul from Stansted?
The data on the link is for the -900 which Thomson do not operate.
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Talking of Thomson Airways in general from Luton, I do wonder if the airline is struggling with its base from the airport?
The problem for Thomson at Gatwick is that Gatwick likes the year round airlines that pump passengers into the airport during the lean winter months. It must get to the point where they will find it hard to get summer only slots when the airport can sell year round slots to the scheduled airlines. When that happens maybe Luton will pick up some extra business.
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easyjet have informed me that they are using a smaller aircraft for my Copenhagen flight. Competition from Ryanair?
Last edited by LTNman; 16th Apr 2015 at 11:22. Reason: to keep ericlday happy
Talking of Thomson Airways in general from Luton, I do wonder if the airline is struggling with its base from the airport? Even though the airline still has a significant number on 757's , we don't see any of them operating out of Luton anymore and is a 737-800 base. During the winter the airline barely has one aircraft based here, and for the summer you see two for the whole season and a third only usually appears for June through to early September. We use to see three 757's based here all summer and two in the winter.
Eh!?...we're not talking about the same LTN base I work at!
TOM has based a 757 during the Summer (from May) at LTN for ages (and will probably continue to do so as long as the aircraft are maintained in H61) As for the Winter program this is a commercial decision and quite a few bases go down to a single 737 from Nov-April (STN, CWL etc)
And surprise surprise, off goes LTNMan about the Thomson supplements! (and no, they do not struggle to sell the program from LTN!)
Eh!?...we're not talking about the same LTN base I work at!
TOM has based a 757 during the Summer (from May) at LTN for ages (and will probably continue to do so as long as the aircraft are maintained in H61) As for the Winter program this is a commercial decision and quite a few bases go down to a single 737 from Nov-April (STN, CWL etc)And surprise surprise, off goes LTNMan about the Thomson supplements! (and no, they do not struggle to sell the program from LTN!)
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I did say that the flights I have been on have been full or near full so I concede your point.
What I did notice on the Thomson Holidays booking engine is that at well as flying Thomson Airways there are options to fly easyjet out of Luton.
What I did notice on the Thomson Holidays booking engine is that at well as flying Thomson Airways there are options to fly easyjet out of Luton.
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LTNMan, presumably you were set to fly on an A320 to CPH with EZY otherwise how could they use reduce the size of the aircraft since the only other type they have is the A319, which seems the most suitable type for the route in any event for the route, especially with competition so fierce?
As for Thomson, it's a shame they they haven't considered LTN for long haul routes. Perhaps in time they still will? Presumably, STN have offered them a very good deal otherwise what is the incentive to use STN over LTN given that runway length for these routes isn't an issue?
As for Thomson, it's a shame they they haven't considered LTN for long haul routes. Perhaps in time they still will? Presumably, STN have offered them a very good deal otherwise what is the incentive to use STN over LTN given that runway length for these routes isn't an issue?
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Eh!?...we're not talking about the same LTN base I work at! TOM has based a 757 during the Summer (from May) at LTN for ages (and will probably continue to do so as long as the aircraft are maintained in H61) As for the Winter program this is a commercial decision and quite a few bases go down to a single 737 from Nov-April (STN, CWL etc)
But you do have to admit capacity from the airline has been cutback from a few years back when all three aircraft were 757's and were based at the airport from May right through to October, and is now only see three aircraft based from June to early September,with two for the remainder of the season. This being a mix of 737 and 757.
Also Thomson sells capacity on a large number of their flights to Thomas Cook from Luton, while other UK bases have a similar sized number of Thomson aircraft, but don't sell seats to other operators as Thomas Cook Airlines already operate from that base.
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Also Thomson sells capacity on a large number of their flights to Thomas Cook from Luton
gilesdavies there were never three Britannia 757's based at LTN. Going back quite a while there were two based during the Summer (prior to the 737's)
TOM's Summer fleet at LTN (2 x 737 & 1 x757) has remained constant for over the last few years.The program runs from early May to late October with those based aircraft.
Thomson has been offering flights with other carriers from several airports for some time to increase the range of holiday durations on offer. This has no impact on TOM's own summer flying program from LTN.
TOM's Summer fleet at LTN (2 x 737 & 1 x757) has remained constant for over the last few years.The program runs from early May to late October with those based aircraft.
Thomson has been offering flights with other carriers from several airports for some time to increase the range of holiday durations on offer. This has no impact on TOM's own summer flying program from LTN.
Last edited by boeing_eng; 17th Apr 2015 at 17:02.
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Yes I'd agree TOM's LTN programme has been cut back slightly compared to a few years back. I've often thought of it as a lazy 3 aircraft base with sometimes an aircraft only doing 1 return leg a day (compare to say EMA and NCL which are also 3 aircraft but have more flights).
TOM's short-haul STN programme (although still only 2 738's) has crept up slightly in size over the last year or two. STN this summer benefits with 2 flights a week to NBE being operated by aircraft flying in on W patterns (1 of which I believe is a LTN aircraft but could be mistaken). 2 or 3 years ago STN often bared the brunt by losing aircraft on W patterns.
Nonetheless TOM still operate a bigger short-haul programme from LTN than STN although the gap has been closing in over the last couple of years.
As for long-haul, apart from some of the responses on here being totally predictable to the recent development, I think STN is all round the better airport for this and was the next obvious choice for long-haul. With the one-off flight to Jamaica in February, I had a feeling they were going to introduce long-haul from STN in S16.
The extra kilometre of runway (or near enough) is a bonus but also opens up an entirely new region, the east of England, for their long-haul holidays. LTN is already diluted somewhat between LGW and BHX. Also, I dare say TCX's development of long-haul through STN might have something to do with it?
TOM's short-haul STN programme (although still only 2 738's) has crept up slightly in size over the last year or two. STN this summer benefits with 2 flights a week to NBE being operated by aircraft flying in on W patterns (1 of which I believe is a LTN aircraft but could be mistaken). 2 or 3 years ago STN often bared the brunt by losing aircraft on W patterns.
Nonetheless TOM still operate a bigger short-haul programme from LTN than STN although the gap has been closing in over the last couple of years.
As for long-haul, apart from some of the responses on here being totally predictable to the recent development, I think STN is all round the better airport for this and was the next obvious choice for long-haul. With the one-off flight to Jamaica in February, I had a feeling they were going to introduce long-haul from STN in S16.
The extra kilometre of runway (or near enough) is a bonus but also opens up an entirely new region, the east of England, for their long-haul holidays. LTN is already diluted somewhat between LGW and BHX. Also, I dare say TCX's development of long-haul through STN might have something to do with it?
I've often thought of it as a lazy 3 aircraft base with sometimes an aircraft only doing 1 return leg a day
Ha...that's a new expression for the book!
Perhaps it hadn't registered that LTN is TOM's main engineering base and based aircraft are constantly rotated. On certain days in the week during the summer, rather than flying an additional rotation, certain aircraft will go into H61 for a scheduled overnight check. Again, this has been happening for a long time so no need for the armchair experts to say its recent!!
Ha...that's a new expression for the book!
Perhaps it hadn't registered that LTN is TOM's main engineering base and based aircraft are constantly rotated. On certain days in the week during the summer, rather than flying an additional rotation, certain aircraft will go into H61 for a scheduled overnight check. Again, this has been happening for a long time so no need for the armchair experts to say its recent!!