Luton-9

[chesna152]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Point taken but moaning posts as you put it concern the airports owner and the people of Luton who we are told own the asset. I will try not to repeat myself in future.

Please do continue to enlighten on these matters! The financial affairs and developing situation of the public pumping money into this asset, I for one find fascinating and seems like a scandal waiting to be uncovered! This is information completely relevant to this thread!

[22/04]

"The rail franchising model is now dead. Rail operators will enter in to agreements with HMG to run its railways for a fee, and HMG will own the fares. That will (presumably) be the opportunity to amend the Thameslink operating agreement"

I think Thameslink is already a managment contract so little change in that case.

[Lee Baker Street]

Originally Posted by Manx

Is it worth having two Luton threads? One to include news about the airport, routes, recovery etc. and the other for people to post their gripes with the political landscape with the local council and airport managemenr. There's not much changing with the latter, just the same gripes being posted every other post including in irrelevant posts, just to get a moan in. Why the gripes clearly have some foundation, the posts are about as newsworthy and interesting as if somebody decided to post every other day that easyJet operate from the airport on days that have a "y" in them. It's drowning out other content to the point of this thread becoming unreadable.

Well said Manx. I pay my community charge here in Luton and therefore want to see the airport redeveloped and thrive! Like yourself I am more interested in new routes, new airlines and passenger levels rather than the constant negative comments which in my opinion seems to be politically motivated.

I have high hopes for the airport to recover in the next couple of years and a vision that Luton should become the UK’s Third Airport.

[BHX5DME]

Originally Posted by Lee Baker Street

Well said Manx. I pay my community charge here in Luton and therefore want to see the airport redeveloped and thrive! Like yourself I am more interested in new routes, new airlines and passenger levels rather than the constant negative comments which in my opinion seems to be politically motivated.

I have high hopes for the airport to recover in the next couple of years and a vision that Luton should become the UK’s Third Airport.

Agreed - Luton is the top performing airport in the UK at the moment more than doubling its market share in August 20 compared to August 19.

[LTNman]

And jumping a place to become the UK’s 4th busiest airport in August. So pleased to be the giver of good news. Thank you Wizz, as I never saw that coming this time last year.

The positive news continues with planning permission about to be granted this week for yet another hotel. This one will have 8 floors and contain 171 bedrooms and will be located in the hotel section of the airport along Old Airport Way. The new hotel together with the exiting hotel next door will have reduced parking of 0.24 spaces per bedroom.

The hotel forum of Luton has objected stating that there are already well over 3000 nightly beds available in the town and this is already unsustainable.

Another new hotel opposite the Ibis has yet to be started with another 2 in the pipeline making a potential total of 9 at the airport..

[Spanish eyes]

Just my two penneth on the subject of attempted post suppression by those that don’t like a message. Thankfully this is not the Southend thread where intolerance to some posts can lead to a stream of abuse by those that cannot handle what is perceived as a negative post even when it is based on facts. I would post there on rare occasions but stopped a few years back as I didn’t like the personal attacks as the group motto was to shoot the messenger and to pretend everything was rosy.

Now we have the hints of that phenomenon here. Certainly some of my posts have not gone down well so I normally restrict my thoughts as why bother to have an opinion that is usually made through personal observations when it is shut down by fans that never come to the airport from one year to the next but consider their opinions as being more valid.

This thread should not only cover new routes and airlines but management style including the decisions of the owners. While poor decisions have no impact on most people’s lives when they live in a town linked to its local airport Luton is different. The town has seen first hand what happens when a limited company owned by a local authority gets it wrong. Mass redundancy of council employees, services binned with the poorest being forced to pay more but airport spending increased due to an airport that cannot pay its borrowing debts.

Those in charge and running the show try to hide the truth from its citizens so it is refreshing to see the beans spilled here where "facts" that would be buried are revealed. It has been suggested that Luton should have two threads. I actually agree, one for the good news only posts so we can hear about the latest boring Wizz route to a place no one has heard of for supporters and spotters and this one that digs deeper and exposes what is really going on for those that want the full picture.

I live in hope that we can all tolerate views and opinions from those that that choose to post here for a more rounded view of Luton including positive and so called negative posts if that post is relevant to the airport.

[pabely]

The hotel forum of Luton has objected stating that there are already well over 3000 nightly beds available in the town and this is already unsustainable.

Must be better for the customer though keeping rates low?
Can't remember how many times I have paid over £100 at Gatwick (pre Covid) because everywhere else was full, for a few hours sleep!

[Buster the Bear]

Looks like a few ostriches here are just spotters hoping for new route news. You can find that easily on the news wires.

I am a non resident of Luton. I am not a spotter. I embrace all the flow of Rumours and News about Luton and also contribute. Are we to see comments about airline management/governance outlawed on other sub forum? If you want to start a a new threat please title it Luton For Spotters on another area of this website please. I'll continue to contribute to this forum which is very enlightening. I also hope to watch from afar, as the muddle that LBC finds itself in slowly unfolds.

[LTNman]

Originally Posted by pabely

Must be better for the customer though keeping rates low?
Can't remember how many times I have paid over £100 at Gatwick (pre Covid) because everywhere else was full, for a few hours sleep!

£36 and £42 being displayed yesterday as I drove past.

The new hotel got passed by the Planning Committee last night that will be located in the car park of the Marriott Hotel. Also student accommodation blocks got planning permission to be converted into hotels sighting demand from an expanding airport. In reality the accommodation blocks will end up as accommodation for homeless families from London and homes for asylum seekers, which is already happening in the town.

The red building is the new hotel. The Marriott Hotel was built at lightening speed (or was it the second Ibis?) as the rooms were built in Poland complete with fixtures and fittings and assembled on site.

[Manx]

Originally Posted by Buster the Bear

Looks like a few ostriches here are just spotters hoping for new route news. You can find that easily on the news wires.

I am a non resident of Luton. I am not a spotter. I embrace all the flow of Rumours and News about Luton and also contribute. Are we to see comments about airline management/governance outlawed on other sub forum? If you want to start a a new threat please title it Luton For Spotters on another area of this website please. I'll continue to contribute to this forum which is very enlightening. I also hope to watch from afar, as the muddle that LBC finds itself in slowly unfolds.

It's not about making a thread for "spotters" - nobody is asking about new planes, plane movements or whatever it is that floats their boat so that's incredibly wide of the mark. It's not even about suppressing criticism of the airport which would have been a better response as it looks like there is plenty to criticise.
It's about the exact same points of critcism being repeated and slipped into every other post even where they're not linked. Post criticism by all means, but ideally when it's new info otherwise it just kills this thread as it reads like a Daily Mail-style hate campaign. There's plenty of good content including the criticism, but its been getting drowned out.

[boeing_eng]

Manx.....There is plenty to criticise when it comes to the current shenanigans between LLA and the Council. It needs fully exposing and occasionally there will be duplication of info. If it doesn't interest you then ignore the posts (but to imply an intolerance to a certain message content on a forum like this is basically censorship) I rarely post on the subject, but as a local resident and a 30+ year airport worker I feel very strongly about the current situation and the way its being handled by LBC!

[LTNman]

While CAA passenger figures always come in higher than LLAOL figures due to the airport not counting infants, August is somewhat different.

820,000 = Airport figure https://mediahub.london-luton.co.uk/...ngers?ref=Home
622,035 = CAA figure, which is substantially lower.

So why would that be? Did the airport "cook" the figures in the past to keep them below 18m and are now including every possible passenger including business jet passengers to raise the figures for its press release? Even allowing for business jet passengers the difference is over 28% so who are they counting?

[Buster the Bear]

Originally Posted by boeing_eng

Manx.....There is plenty to criticise when it comes to the current shenanigans between LLA and the Council. It needs fully exposing and occasionally there will be duplication of info. If it doesn't interest you then ignore the posts (but to imply an intolerance to a certain message content on a forum like this is basically censorship) I rarely post on the subject, but as a local resident and a 30+ year airport worker I feel very strongly about the current situation and the way its being handled by LBC!

As an ex employee of the airport, the information must flow. Plenty of websites and other forum for spotters.

Ciao Fly for now!

[Lee Baker Street]

Originally Posted by Buster the Bear

As an ex employee of the airport, the information must flow. Plenty of websites and other forum for spotters.

Ciao Fly for now!

Over the last couple of years I had suspicions that this forum was being hijacked by LibDems supporters. It was in a sense easy to conclude this when so many comments mirror that of a high profile local councillor.

I know because Frankly I have personally known that individual for decades!

I strongly suggest you political motivated individuals look for another forum that is more aligned to politics!

Wiedersehen

Afscheid

Au devour

Viszlat

[SWBKCB]

I would suggest that if politically motivated, somebody have a re-think. Obscure aviation forums ain't the best way of getting the message out...

[avidspotter]

Or possibly a genuine mistake?

Originally Posted by LTNman

While CAA passenger figures always come in higher than LLAOL figures due to the airport not counting infants, August is somewhat different.

820,000 = Airport figure https://mediahub.london-luton.co.uk/...ngers?ref=Home
622,035 = CAA figure, which is substantially lower.

So why would that be? Did the airport "cook" the figures in the past to keep them below 18m and are now including every possible passenger including business jet passengers to raise the figures for its press release? Even allowing for business jet passengers the difference is over 28% so who are they counting?

[AirportPlanner1]

Booked pax v those that showed up?

[LTNman]

Originally Posted by Lee Baker Street

Over the last couple of years I had suspicions that this forum was being hijacked by LibDems supporters. It was in a sense easy to conclude this when so many comments mirror that of a high profile local councillor.

I know because Frankly I have personally known that individual for decades!

I strongly suggest you political motivated individuals look for another forum that is more aligned to politics!

Wiedersehen

Afscheid

Au devour

Viszlat

That is why I say Council and don’t mention political parties of the Council. Out of interest all political groups have sat on the board of LLAL so are all tarred with the same brush although one grouping dropped out as they were being gagged by LLAL confidentiality rules. Confidentiality rules created to keep information away from the Council taxpayers.

When big spending plans were committed by LLAL, which has caused many of the problems, all 3 parties were represented on the board of Directors but as no minutes were published we don’t know if any party objected.

[LTNman]

Originally Posted by AirportPlanner1

Booked pax v those that showed up?

Good point. The airport only gets paid for the ones that turn up which the airlines keeping the airport fees and taxes.

[LGS6753]

Over the last few months, I would expect no-shows are on the high side, so the booked pax v actual pax debate may be more pertinent than usual.