LUTON -8

[LTNman]

My photos have disappeared as the hosting site has gone into maintenance. Check back later as they should be back soon.

The mid-term car park looks great!

You mean the short term car park looks great. The mid term is a heap of s***

[Powerjet1]

Having never used the Long Term car park, is that similar to the Mid-Term rubbish, or does it have actual tarmac laid down

[LTNman]

From memory the lower new section, which was finished around last year and faces taxiway Delta is all tarmac. The old section has gravel parking bays but is generally in better condition than the mid term and the tarmac strips are OK.

[Level bust]

The car park is ok, it's the road getting to it is the problem, you have to dodge the potholes!

[Buster the Bear]

Vueling to Zurich, all that was announced indicates the route will run from June until the end of the summer timetable period at least.

[LTNman]

All of the work seems to be going well and I think they are making good progress.

Yes good progress is being made but major problems are going to occur soon regarding traffic flows into the CTA unless more of it isn't completed in the coming weeks.

The number one issue is the existing drop off zone, which is only half the size of this time last year. It was reduced in size late last summer so the taxi rank could be temporarily moved. Even before it was reduced cars would queue to beyond the Ibis and since it was reduced traffic can back up well past the railway bridge and Parkway. With maybe another 15% to 20% of traffic expected this summer and with all the extra lorries associated with the redevelopment the airport is heading for a critical situation.

The new drop off area which will incorporate two of the four existing lanes still seems a long way off as work continues on just drainage. Once built it will probably need to be temporarily tied into the existing road network which is far from ideal.

The exit route and pay barriers seems a bit more straight forward but again it will probably have to tie in temporarily to the existing road network. No doubt the work will have to finished at the same time as the drop off area to maintain income from the drop off zone.

The other major issue is the size of the short term car park. Last summer cars were stopped from entering it as it was often full, which added to the traffic jams, as each driver had to be spoken to regarding alternate car parks. At the moment the car park has lost close to 50% of its capacity even including the opened up former staff car park and that won't be fixed for this summer. Despite cones, cars are already parking at the ends of lanes and on either side of the entrance making turning around impossible.

It is all very well introducing new routes and airlines but there will be a high price to pay if the airport grinds to a halt. I have no doubt that the airport will be attracting some new passengers for the first and last time, which is a shame, as a better experience will start to come to the airport from next winter.

[Falcon666]

Interesting arrival this afternoon.
Air Blue flight from Teruel north of Valencia which I believe is the largest storage Airport in Europe.
Then due out to Karachi at 17.00.
Any ideas as to why it's using LTN?

[boeing_eng]

Two different aircraft.....Monarch are working on ex UT Air A321's which have been in storage at Teruel destined for Air Blue. The departure is an aircraft which is already here (but they may struggle to open the hangar doors in this wind!)

Here's today's arrival (AP-BMM)

[Falcon666]

boeing_eng.
Thanks for that , wasnt aware of the maintenance.
Timing just looked like one flight

[Alloy]

I would have thought a Vueling ZRH flight is likely to work in the ski season at least as well as the summer?

[wallp]

I agree Alloy, ZRH doesn't strike me as a summer only destination at all. Perhaps they've only released seats for the first few months of operation for now?

I hope they do add more new routes soon. I think FCO and MAD could work well for them. Both could probably handle more flights and it would be great if they offered a FLR service alongside their existing service from LGW a few times a week

[wallp]

easyJet

Is the extend of easyJets expansion this summer the new route to JER?

I was expecting that there might be a fe wither additions but given we're now into February any new routes for this summer would surely need to be confirmed pretty soon

[LTNman]

Easyjet can see everyday by looking out of their windows that this year is not the year for further expansion from Luton as further expansion just means a tougher trip to and from work each day and more disruption for the office staff.

[AvGeek1]

I understand that it's hectic with all of the building work going on and the airport operating at capacity. But if Vueling & Transavia announced services what stopped easyJet getting too it. They could have surely used the less busier times like 9-10am or 3-4pm

Since easyJet is axing routes like BRU, CGN, DUS from Gatwick, I think all of these routes have the potential to be successful from Luton, but with decent timings especially for business routes like BRU with a morning and evening rotation on weekdays

[wallp]

Well Vueling certainly seem to have big plans for Luton, targeting existing EZY routes which hopefully means competitive fares and better choice of flight times - the latter certainly seems to be the case with the 3 routes they've announced so far.

EZY had better watch out, there's still plenty of room for Vueling to grow at Luton, especially outside of the peak hours which actually suits them fine since aircraft aren't Luton based.

Hopefully we will see more EZY routes announced before long or maybe their approach should be to operate some more Luton routes as they do with MXP and use aircraft from other bases? An example is AMS where they could now operate a first in, last out flight as Vueling have done with their flight times.

[LTNman]

If for example you can't get into the car park during the off peak hours I would say there are no off peak hours. If you can't find a seat during the off peak hours I would again say there are no off peak hours. I could go on but I guess everyone gets the idea. There is plenty of time for new routes but 2016 isn't the time as I would say the airports capacity will be lower than 2015 and 2015 was a bad year for passengers.

[AvGeek1]

I was just thinking, it might be a bit off topic, but with loads on the La Compagnie flight averaging around 40 business pax, wouldn't it make sense if they kept 40 business seats and the rest of the aircraft could be turned into economy. I know they are an all-business class airline but surely this would make things better as they could tap into the economy market and also offer competitive economy prices on the LON-NYC market. As a boutique airline they could operate a decent economy product as well. I think this would most definitely boost the Luton passengers numbers.

If the 757-200 was configured with 40 business class seats, how many economy class seats could there be?

[AirportPlanner1]

But 40 is an average, so if they limited capacity to 40 the average would go down ie if loads over three days are 20, 40 and 60 your average is 40. If it is 20, 40 and 40 because there are no more seats the average is 33.3.

And if you put economy on board, you lose your USP as an 'exclusive' airline and start complicating your systems.

[Boeing737-8]

Vueling

It seems that Vueling have changed their morning Barcelona flight. It now arrives at 8:05 and departs at 9:00. Also the morning flight will now be done by one of their 5 A321's.

[LTNman]

24.9% growth in passenger numbers in January. Rise marks 22 consecutive months of passenger growth.
http://newsroom.london-luton.co.uk/n...t=current_news

Based on the figure for Jan 2015 I make that around 819,749 passengers

Not much building work took place today due to the wind so it was almost a lost day as far as I could tell.