LUTON -8

[pabely]

That was always going to have issues with the Fuel Farm where it is.
Perhaps Duel lanes on stilts along Vauxhall Way as well until it reaches just past Shell garage!

[Buster the Bear]

If anyone fancies delving into this, it mentions the airport, development and associated areas.

http://www.luton.gov.uk/Environment/...s%20report.pdf

[pabely]

Were the here LTNman

Protesters say they've been 'fobbed off' over Luton business park concerns | Anglia - ITV News

[LTNman]

...and I was on the committee that organised it.

[Lee Baker Street]

LTNman, ..."and I was on the committee that organised it."

It is interesting to note that you and me have different ideas for the airport. I personally as a Lutonian want the airport to grow and handle at minimum 25 million passengers per year but happy for it to exceed this figure because with the right infurstrucure can easily exceed those levels. In 'fact'I believe the next step for the airport will be a satelite building able to handle 16 aircraft on stands at any given time or at least ten million passengers per annum.

Whilst you admit to arranging your 'anti airport growth campaign' I admit that you residents in Wigmore should be exempted as the Wigmore estate was being built in the late eighties knowing that the location was just north/ next to the airport boundery!

You appear to have so many photos showing Luton Airport from someone who admitedly is anti airport growth but has 'airside access' which concerns me and should concern each and every passenger that flies from Luton!

[LTNman]

I was there when the PARK was created by the council as a green buffer to protect the residents through distance from the effects of the airport. Now nearly 40 years later with the park maturing nicely they have handed it over to the airport for a business park when there is already a 20 year planning permission for the same business park on a site next to the end of the runway at the 26 end and next to Wigmore Park. The official line is yes but we are giving you a ploughed field right by the runway which is no good to us, as it will by too noisy, that we will seed for you with grass. Hang on, no one lives next to the runway at the 26 end so who is going to use it?

I have never said I was against airport expansion and the planning application is not for airport expansion but for a business park. We can all speculate where airport expansion will go and Wigmore Park did seem the obvious choice until the council decided that the access route will no longer be from New Airport Way but via residential streets which was explicitly banned in the original planning permission from 20 years ago.


I know your thinking just involves shoveling ever more passengers through the airport even if there is physically no way of doing it. The CTA can not handle the 15.6 million passengers it tries to handle today without massive tailbacks. With modifications it should be able to handle 18 million passengers together with the terminal but we will have to wait and see how they intend to get to 25 million. Maybe they could build a satellite terminal at the bottom of your garden and bus the passengers to the aircraft from there.

[LTNman]

I actually think this 25 million figure has been plucked out of thin air and is an aspiration and that no one has even drawn up any sort of plan as to how it could be achieved. Maybe if and when work starts on the new business park someone at the airport will start to think that some of that area would have made a nice place to expand the airport.

The council and LLAL does not have the ability to look ahead further than a handful of years. If they did they would have planned for a CTA station at the same time as the airport upgrade and not waited until the expansion of the airport had began. Now parts of the CTA are going to have to be ripped up that are only a few months old. That money wasted could have been spent on upgraded finishes to improve the customer experience in the terminal.

Also noted is that the new pier does not even match the look and finish of the existing pier. While the exiting pier had infills put in to maximise the available space the new pier has bits sticking out that will no doubt be filled in at a later date. I find it all very strange.

[compton3bravo]

One thing puzzles me is where all these passengers are going to come from, not just at Luton but other London airports as well. Sorry to be so pessimistic on a Monday morning.

[LTNman]

I would say in Luton's case migration has fueled most of Luton's expansion. It started off with young men looking for work, then their girlfriends and wives came over. Now it is an equal mix of young and middle aged people who bring their parents over here to live. Those numbers should slow down but it won't stop.

As for the British living in the UK taking holidays abroad, I can see a drop in numbers as belts are eventually tightened. There then are foreign holidaymakers, which is a rising market so growth should come from there. That just leaves business travel but Luton is not an airport that is focused on business travel. Maybe they will have to raise their game if they want to see 25 million passengers?

[LGS6753]

where all these passengers are going to come from, not just at Luton but other London airports as well

1. Luton has the densest catchment area after Heathrow (population within 1 and 2 hour drive times).
2. Air travel is increasing worldwide. The cumulative effect of a few percentage points a year adds up to millions more passenger journeys.
3. London is a city growing in population and wealth, and will continue that growth (unless Comrade Corbyn wins power).
4. Growing international travel needs will be met by air travel in the UK to a greater extent than in other countries simply because, as an island, there are fewer alternatives.

[Alvechurch]

Originally Posted by LGS6753

1. Luton has the densest catchment area after Heathrow (population within 1 and 2 hour drive times).

According to the Steer Davies Gleeve & Capital Economics Catchment Areas analysis in May 2013, Birmingham Airport has 35 million people in its 2-hour catchment area.
Which is the largest catchment of any UK airport.

[boeing_eng]

Lee Baker Street.....get real!

I've lived in Wigmore for 25 years and worked at the airport for over 30 years. The current development of the airport is a mess....period! You mention the airport could expand with correct infrastructure! The current infrastructure is a bodge job at best given the numbers handled today. Its totally understandable local residents are concerned given the promises regarding Wigmore Park made in the past that have transpired to be nothing more than lies.

As LTNman correctly mentions, Wigmore Park was created as a noise buffer and when the Wigmore estate was built in the 1980's, obviously the airport was handling a fraction of today's traffic.

I'm all for responsible growth of the airport which improves the passenger experience but the current "cram 'em in" at all costs mentality is simply not sustainable. It's very easy to dismiss the local residents and their concerns as Nimbys but proposing a situation where the local road network will be totally gridlocked justifiably needs highlighting!

[Seljuk22]

Originally Posted by davidjohnson6

Wizzair's website seems to show that Luton-Tuzla doesn't operate during the coming winter, namely late October 2017 to late March 2018. It appears to have operated last winter though.
Anyone know if this is advance notice of a route termination, or will it return next summer ?

I assume the base will be reduced to 1 based aircraft but strange that LTN will be cancelled!? Thought LTN is always one of the best performing routes out of a Wizz base?
WizzAir Tuzla seasonal changes from Sep 2017 :: Routesonline

[Falcon666]

Tuzla

From the Airports Statistics.

Jan17 Pax 1504 Avail seats 3240 46L/F
Feb17 Pax1022 Avail seats 2880 35L/F
Mar17 Pax1072 Avail seats 2880 37L/F
Apr17 Pax 2417 Avail seats 2880 84L/F
May17 Pax2237 Avail seats 3240 69L/F
Jun17 Pax1193 Avail seats 2520 79L/F

Based on 2 x wkly A320 a/c 720 seats per week

Advance fares look cheap so based on above figures not enough demand

[ImPlaneCrazy]

Aurigny seem to be dropping their London City service later in the year, do we see this being replaced by a LTN flight?

[southside bobby]

In a word no...(For the London market will concentrate on LGW & STN if you read the press release this morning...)

[LTNman]

Construction updates are few and far between now as not much changes externally one week to the next. The photo shows the last part of the terminal infill which has had its concrete floor laid on the first floor a couple of weeks ago with the roof now going in.

There is still a massive amount of work to be carried out even on the section that was erected last year. I am thinking that nothing major is likely to happen now that will improve the customer experience until the end of the year when maybe the first part of the terminal extension is likely to open. With no extra seating planned to my knowledge more shops are unlikely to make the passengers any happier.

The new pier seems to be progressing well and might also open at the end of the year. The taxiway extension should open early next year.

There are still constant complaints about the traffic jams on the approach roads to the airport in the early morning that the £14 million spent on the new dual carriageway and CTA layout was meant to have fixed. In fact public transport out of the airport are now affected by delays for the first time due to the design of the CTA road layout. Remember this is the design that was meant to handle 18 million passengers so should be operating under capacity.

I await with interest the new mark 8 drop off area that will open in early spring of next year and how that will affect traffic flows.

[AvGeek1]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Construction updates are few and far between now as not much changes externally one week to the next. The photo shows the last part of the terminal infill which has had its concrete floor laid on the first floor a couple of weeks ago with the roof now going in.

There is still a massive amount of work to be carried out even on the section that was erected last year. I am thinking that nothing major is likely to happen now that will improve the customer experience until the end of the year when maybe the first part of the terminal extension is likely to open. With no extra seating planned to my knowledge more shops are unlikely to make the passengers any happier.

The new pier seems to be progressing well and might also open at the end of the year. The taxiway extension should open early next year.

There are still constant complaints about the traffic jams on the approach roads to the airport in the early morning that the £14 million spent on the new dual carriageway and CTA layout was meant to have fixed. In fact public transport out of the airport are now affected by delays for the first time due to the design of the CTA road layout. Remember this is the design that was meant to handle 18 million passengers so should be operating under capacity.

I await with interest the new mark 8 drop off area that will open in early spring of next year and how that will affect traffic flows.

I recently travelled out of Luton on the 9th August where my flight was at 7am. I got to the airport at 4:30am and no traffic jams on the approach road or even in the CTA, only a small queue into the drop off zone. Check in was good as well, considering security looked very busy it went quite smoothly. Then we emerged into departures, which is quite terrible, with hoards of people everywhere and queues for all eateries. The main problem is the departure lounge now, not the CTA. The CTA could definitely be improved to reduce traffic congestion, of course.

[LTNman]

You arrived early to be hit with the delights of the traffic congestion. It is also a nightmare at other peak periods during the school holidays.

Unless plans have changed the new extension to the departure will be pure shops when more food oulets are needed.

[racedo]

Travelled into Luton last night............... comment on the bus to Long Term car park was "Welcome to London's Third World Aiport......................... vistors come here from Third World to learn what not to do".............. 45 minutes from bus arriving to getting to car park.

Do the muppets who designed the way out for buses ever use it ?

Queued for 25 minutes crawling along waiting to get through barrier, screens on bus on a loop telling everybopdy about how great their experience would be in flying from Luton........... no mention of how **** their arriving back experience is.

Getting to car park and nothing to tell people what stop they were stopping at so people getting into rain in dark hoping they close.