LUTON -8

[Buster the Bear]

I picked a random week during June and weekdays Transavia are flying twice daily to Orly.

[LTNman]

Working with Luton to prepare for the busiest year in UK skies - NATS Blog

10% growth forecast for Luton this year

[Buster the Bear]

Essex Radar is going to be rather busy!

[AvGeek1]

With a 10% growth expected, this means that Luton will possibly handled between 13,000,000 - 13,500,000 million passengers in 2016. This is incredible growth!

Also does anyone know when the CAA releases the annual 2015 passenger statistics data as I have been trying to get hold of them for a while as I am in charge of updating the data on the Luton's Wikipedia page.

Regarding the Transavia flights from Orly, the frequency is 1 daily on Monday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday and 2 daily on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday from the 22nd April (the launch date). However in the summer months it looks like most days are two daily. The frequency varies quite a bit. They must be struggling for bookings, as prices are still showing £25 one way. I am not surprised as they are competing with EZY at CDG but also are not a very well known brand in the UK. Have not seen much advertising for this service either.

[Falcon666]

Just travelled through LTN to CDG for the weekend rugby and thankfully Easy got us back with minimal delay given the French strike.
Couldnt believe how busy the terminal was on Friday afternoon, .Seating is the usual real problem and will certainly only get worse this summer.
Looks like predictions of 1 Million pax in March is a real possibility.
Big downside was the length of time from pushback to airborne.
08 was in use and seven were waiting, nearly all backtracked the full length-really do need to get the parallel taxiway built at that end.
Was impressed with the new security, all lanes open with hundreds of people queueing but only five minutes to get through.
Went to the Bar down by Gates 1-4 for a bit of peace, got talking to the staff there.It appears that the Duty free will eventually be moving to its new location at the old security area by the end of May. Seems this has been delayed at least twice.When they move refurbishments are being carried out to some current retailers inc Starbucks.
All in all the experience was much better than anticipated given all the work going on!!

[LTNman]

I was told that the new walk through duty free shop was meant to open this week for Easter so that is news to me but not surprising as every part of the redevelopment is hit by missed completion dates.

The existing duty free shop area when closed will have an entrance cut through it to serve the new pier. When the new terminal was built in 1999 a corridor was put in complete with windows overlooking the eastern apron to serve any future pier but that idea was abandoned for the redevelopment.

While seating will be improved already one proposed seating area is going to be turned into two further retail units in the new shopping area that will be built in the first floor terminal infill area when that is constructed.

The glass walled bridge that links the old security hall with the existing departure lounge will eventually become a retail storage area and will be closed to the public.

[AvGeek1]

Originally Posted by Falcon666

Just travelled through LTN to CDG for the weekend rugby and thankfully Easy got us back with minimal delay given the French strike.
Couldnt believe how busy the terminal was on Friday afternoon, .Seating is the usual real problem and will certainly only get worse this summer.
Looks like predictions of 1 Million pax in March is a real possibility.
Big downside was the length of time from pushback to airborne.
08 was in use and seven were waiting, nearly all backtracked the full length-really do need to get the parallel taxiway built at that end.
Was impressed with the new security, all lanes open with hundreds of people queueing but only five minutes to get through.
Went to the Bar down by Gates 1-4 for a bit of peace, got talking to the staff there.It appears that the Duty free will eventually be moving to its new location at the old security area by the end of May. Seems this has been delayed at least twice.When they move refurbishments are being carried out to some current retailers inc Starbucks.
All in all the experience was much better than anticipated given all the work going on!!

Yes I have heard from a few family members that the new security is very effective and quick which is a massive improvement on the old security, which was like a cattle market at peak times! I just think they need to tidy it up in the terminal as it looks very basic with temporary walls and signage all over the place. But I guess this will come in due time with the terminal's interior upgrade.

Good to know that the new duty free is to open in May, some progress even thought it is delayed.

I personally think that the check-in area is currently not sufficient as although long, very narrow and needs to be more open planned to allow hoards of passengers. Are there any plans for the check-in area? What is happening to the retail units in the middle between the check-in area and the current entrance/security are?

Also, is there any sign of work starting again on the drop off area in the CTA and will the drop off area in the CTA be finished by June/July?

[LTNman]

I personally think that the check-in area is currently not sufficient as although long, very narrow and needs to be more open planned to allow hoards of passengers. Are there any plans for the check-in area? What is happening to the retail units in the middle between the check-in area and the current entrance/security are?

The check-in area isn't being touched as the view is that less passengers now use it and go straight to departures as they have checked-in on-line. In May 2015 the council was informed that a proposed infill to push check-in desks 201-210 further back towards the immigration hall was being abandoned. If that was to have taken place the passenger queuing area for those unused desks would have been the same depth as check-in desks 1-62. Together with the reduction in space by reducing the link building to the new pier to single story has reduced the redevelopment by 1,747sqm. This has been described as value engineering.

One point to note is that at the moment there are three routes from check-in to departures. Once complete there will be just one route so anyone using check-in desk 1 for example will have to walk back past all the other check-in desks back to where they entered the terminal.

The existing retail units will be removed when the new terminal infill opens next year. The vacated space will be used to expand the new security hall to its full width which will end by check-in.

When the infill has been put in this is the final layout. For those people unfamiliar with Luton the check-in area runs top to bottom in yellow on the right hand side with the expanded security hall being shown in red.

[AvGeek1]

It is interesting to see that the security hall will be quite generous in size, but I guess the airport needs it especially for peak time like in the morning. Although, the check-in desks are still frequently used as a lot of people have luggage, not just hand luggage, and with the increasing number of flights put on by current airlines and also by new airlines, I would have thought that the check-in concourse would need some sort of expansion, but they obviously think not.

The Vueling Florence flights begin on the 28th May 2016 and end on the 17th June 2016. Any idea on what this is about and will it become a regular service? Also, the Vueling Barcelona flights end on the 30th March and resume again on the 27th May with 2 daily flights. What are Vueling playing at?

[Boeing737-8]

London Luton Airport predicts record Easter weekend - London Luton Airport
This is a large increase and I'm hearing that the last week has been very busy by some staff members at the airport.

[Falcon666]

Update

London Luton Airport predicts record Easter weekend - London Luton Airport


So 161,000 for Easter and warnings of no places if you turn up for parking on the day.Let the fun begin!
New video at the bottom of the page, shows latest view at 0.24 secs of CTA layout.

Sorry Boeing 737-8 we posted at the same time

[LTNman]

Long term car park is only around 60% full as of today.

The mid term has been all but full now for most of this month. This is where the priority parking cars were being parked. Don't know if this is still the case.

The short term has random spaces here and there.

The airport can control parking with pre- booked parking only so last year cars were being turned away from the short term and last year the short term was much larger than it is than now.

There is a private company operating from a compound in the short term car park where dodgy characters drive passengers car away very fast to an unknown location. Compared to the official priority parking the ratio where an airport employee drives away the car is around 50 cars go private to every 1 car that goes official.

The multistory car park site is already signposted as priority parking but I guess this will just be premium priced self parking to replace the airport staff but at the moment the airport is losing most of this trade as it has no where to park the demand.

[pabely]

Redevelopment

A bit more video foot at the bottom of this link London Luton Airport: meeting the growing demand for flights

[LGS6753]

I think LTNman has covered this before, but this is from Travel Mole today:

Luton requests express train service

[LTNman]

Weekly redevelopment update.

Some deviations to the submitted drawings are starting to appear. An entrance is going in but the drawings show a much deeper lobby several metres to the left where passengers entering the terminal would turn left to go to departures or right to the check-in area.

This entrance is inside the check-in area where a new internal wall forces passengers to bare to the left. Once in the same departure concourse passengers either carry straight on to departures or will have to turn 180 degrees to the check-in area. All very bizarre particularly as check-in desks 60-62 will now have a restricted queuing area with desks 58 and 59 also being slightly restricted. The green lines show the size of the entrance lobby and the red lines the route to the departure concourse.

An alternate theory is that this is a high capacity fire exit route as there appears to be a further set of 3 fire doors by the red dotted lines and the proper entrance hasn’t been started yet.




Cladding has started to appear on the first core.


Work has started to expand the eastern apron by just a few metres. Once complete the three stands by the existing pier will become four stands.


The last of the old security measures that surrounded the old bus station are being removed.


External plant has been placed on the former coach station roof using a crane. Let’s hope it doesn’t need replacing once the terminal extension goes in.

[AvGeek1]

Let's hope it is the fire exit and not the real entrance!

With the cladding going up on one of the cores and eventually on the other core, what's next for the multi-story? Is there an estimation on when it will be finished?

Don't tell me there is still no signs of work on the drop off area!?

[LGS6753]

Posts on the Thomas Cook thread suggest that TCX will be using their own equipment to fly LTN to PMI, MAH, IBZ and CFU in S17.

[LTNman]

Let's hope it is the fire exit and not the real entrance!

With the cladding going up on one of the cores and eventually on the other core, what's next for the multi-story? Is there an estimation on when it will be finished?

I can only think it is something the fire service has insisted on but this entrance does line up with the covered walkway so maybe this is it but apart from a fire exit route this entrance makes no sense at all. On the submitted drawings the entrance is offset to the walkway which ends by the edge of the covered roof.

As for the multistory car park the foundation drilling machine has now gone after drilling 90 holes for the 90 pillars that will hold each floor up. The reinforcement bars for the foundation concrete are being placed at the moment. As for the finish date the last I heard it will be around October which is around 4 months late as the work was started around 4 months late. It was meant to be finished for the summer rush.

[wallp]

Originally Posted by LGS6753

Posts on the Thomas Cook thread suggest that TCX will be using their own equipment to fly LTN to PMI, MAH, IBZ and CFU in S17.

Very interesting. Are these new routes or are some seats currently purchased by Thomas Cook on easyJet?

[Buster the Bear]

I nearly choked on my corn flakes when I was told that for two hours every morning this coming summer, the movement rate has been upped to 34 combined arrivals and departures! Utterly astonishing without RETs or parallel taxiways!