Luton-10

[davidjohnson6]

Why does LTN need to worry so much about TUI leaving ? It's not as if LTN has large amounts of unused capacity and is running at far below its authorised number of passengers per year.

Yes, there was a need for something better than queueing up for the bus at 11 pm in the rain... but a bus service that was
a) more frequent
b) more reliable
c) easier automated verification that pax had paid the bus farer
d) faster bus boarding and de-boarding process
e) plenty of good luggage space on the bus
could have solved this problem at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the risk.

Transport between Parkway and the terminal went from an awful service to being gold-plated - something in between would have sufficed.

[pabely]

Originally Posted by davidjohnson6

Why does LTN need to worry so much about TUI leaving ? It's not as if LTN has large amounts of unused capacity and is running at far below its authorised number of passengers per year.

It did at the time when the decision to build the DART was made. Ideas date back as far as 2007 before approval in 2016.
Wizzair UK was only launched in 2017 and around that time only 2 Wizzair Europe would overnight.
Fast forward today I think TUI would want to base more at Luton but they have lost/sold the slots.
An opportunity arose in 2017 to grab Monarch slots but usual German way, they lost out being reactive.

[LTNman]

Originally Posted by pabely

Have you got comparative costs of how much the old busses cost? Then utilisation pax per day?
Finally the customer experience on making Luton a more desirable airport and spending at the airport because you don't have to queue in the rain for a horrible journey to the airport and say never again?
It was well documented that TUI lost interest in Luton because of negative feedback outside their control.
Putting the Car Park fire aside, the whole Airport experience was shaping up well.

Focusing on the cost to LRT and the Council, the shuttle buses had a cost of £0, as it was funded by Thameslink. By comparison the Dart has a cost of £360m.

The Dart is far more desirable but has failed to add a single passenger as shuttle buses coped in 2019 when the airport operated at 18m passengers that year. In 2023 the airport handled 16.5m passengers despite the Dart.

Talking of queuing, it was taking close to an hour to get from the pick up zone to the A505 due to the continuing closure of New Airport Way in the direction of the M1. Just getting out of the car park was taking around 40 minutes, as cars had to keep merging into a single exit lane within the car park, which then took them around the car park boundary before a very slow drive down Old Airport Way. I did take some photos but the hosting company I use for publishing no longer seems to support forums.

[LTNman]

Passengers have been suffering not only arriving at the airport but also leaving it. This is the exit route from the Mid Term Car Park. Note the closed off section in the Mid Term. A potential new pick up area can be seen inside a new compound but it was also noted that an area inside the CTA by the taxi rank is having all its kerbstones removed including the entry and exit route to the bus station. Maybe that will be the location of a drop off area for the next 18 months?


This is one of several lanes of the pick up zone. Each lane had its own queue that merges into a single lane.


The Central Terminal Area that has limited access for pre-booked cars coming from MSCP1 plus buses and taxi's was no better with the queue stretching down to the A505 thanks to half term.


Meanwhile back at the burnt out car park work is progressing.

Some areas have had the central section removed.


While other sections just have the railings removed.

[LTNman]

I see easyjet have short changed nearly 5500 employees by paying them below the national minimum wage. I bet LRT will want to keep that quiet.

[pabely]

Originally Posted by LTNman

I see easyjet have short changed nearly 5500 employees by paying them below the national minimum wage. I bet LRT will want to keep that quiet.

Why, one of 524 companies identified by HMRC. Are LRT liable for Radisson Hotel Manchester & Center Parks as well?
The article shows all money owed has been paid back.
Does new entrants cabin crew training still occur at Airport site?
If anything this highlights the hospitality sector.

[LTNman]

Statement from LRT

help us build a town where no-one lives in poverty

Money was only paid back as Easyjet got rumbled.

[pabely]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Statement from LRT


Money was only paid back as Easyjet got rumbled.

We are talking about first 3 weeks of employment, not some long term contract and HMRC have accepted it was a mistake and not by design.
As majority numbers who make it through the Academy are never based at Luton, hardly anything to do with LRT.
Isn't the Academy based at Gatwick now anyhow?
Perhaps poor wages at Wetherspoons Pub at Luton Airport you could blame LRT as well.
ALL airports pay similar wages, if it ain't Luton it will be somewhere else.

[LTNman]

I don’t blame LRT for anything, just their fake messaging about wanting to end poverty, as the sad truth is that the airport needs impoverished people to work at the airport for low pay to remain competitive. Oh and the airport hasn’t got a Wetherspoons pub.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Easyjet

LTNman
When are you going to correct your post on the number of people Easyjet short changed as you put it, 3898 is the total number, which is no where the 5500 you have incorrectly stated.

[LTNman]

Happy to be corrected.

[gdiddy]

SunExpress Make a Come Back!

Just looking on Twitter and appears SunExpress are making a welcomed come back this summer, after many thought they'd left the airport for Stansted or Gatwick.

4x Weekly to Antalya and Weekly to Izmir.

Source:
SeanM1997





​​​​

[pabely]

Very welcome to see Sun Express back. I did note their slots hadn't been traded away - will be valuable assets to keep hold of.

[pabely]

Local Jobs

No matter what you think about some low paid jobs in the industry you can always appreciate spend towards local pockets.
https://www.internationalairportrevi...local-economy/

[boeing_eng]

I think a fair chunk of that went to Ryebridge!

[pabely]

A little more detail to what has already been shown within these threads Accounts reveal £550m impact of pandemic on Luton council's airport company

Note: “We expect to secure a revised concessionaire agreement or alternative value added financial arrangement by 2032/33 to extend the resilience and expertise developed during the current concession tenure,” explained the report by Mark Turner, the company secretary and director, and LBC monitoring officer.

[LTNman]

Accounts reveal £550m impact of pandemic on Luton council's airport company

Most of that debt has very little to do with Covid, as LRT stopped paying a dividend to the council and still doesn’t, and has everything to do with its £360m out of control loans to build the Dart and the £261m write off of unrecoverable Dart debts and a further £71m loan to fund the DCO.

Regarding the DCO, despite spending £71m, LRT has very little faith in its own application, so is not convinced by its own arguments, and has now resorted to a petition as a sign of desperation.

We expect to secure a revised concessionaire agreement or alternative value added financial arrangement by 2032/33 to extend the resilience and expertise developed during the current concession tenure,” explained the report by Mark Turner, the company secretary and director, and LBC monitoring officer.

This is just double talk to mean there will be no competitive tendering process and that LRT will be taken to the cleaners with a lower concession fee per passenger than now, as the operator has them over a barrel. This is an indication of historic weak and feeble management and a board of directors made up of housewives and shopkeepers who know little about nothing when it comes to airports.

I note that one of the councillor “housewives” has now been replaced as the Chair of LRT with someone brought in who should know what he is doing but is it too little too late?

A qualified auditor’s opinion was issued for a third successive year around the £1.16bn airport valuation, despite this being £320m lower than a £1.5bn valuation in March 2021. Auditor Azets Audit Services would support a further write down of £150m reducing this to about £1bn.

This is a big deal. Companies don’t like qualified accounts, as it looks bad and this is another one under new auditors. It shows that LRT has put a fake value on its own airport to reduce the debt to value ratio. In other words the auditor has expressed reservations about whether they represent a true and fair view of the company’s financial condition.

[Spanish eyes]

If there was money to be made the airport operator would have built the DART. The fact that they did not speaks volumes. While Luton Rising is haemorrhaging money the airport operator is making a killing by providing the staff for the DART. The word mugs comes to mind together with Labour Party incompetence as while the locals will be paying for the DART for decades to come they get no benefit from it.

[pabely]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Most of that debt has very little to do with Covid, as LRT stopped paying a dividend to the council and still doesn’t, ...............

According to AENA Accounts that is not so.
"To offset the loss of activity as a result of the pandemic, the sustainable recovery agreement was formalised on 17 November 2021 between London Luton Airport and Luton Borough Council, based on the Special Force Majeure (SFM) mechanism included in the concession contract, and whose final agreement foresaw a reduction of the total concession fee
of £45 million (until 2023), a concession extension of 16.5 months (from 31 March 2031 to 15 August 2032), as well as an agreement on other environmental and economic-social matters valued by both parties. A compensation mechanism for the fee provided for in the SFM was also established, although it has not had effect in 2023 or 2022, since the passenger volume for both years has exceeded those projected in the agreement forecast."

So are AENA paying the concession fees again from this year?

[LTNman]

LRT no longer pays a dividend to the council due to the interest payments on its debts despite LLAOL paying them a concession fee again. . Instead the council has to rely on the difference between what it borrowed the money at and what it lent the money at. The result is that the council cries poverty as income from the airport is lower than it was 10 years ago despite higher passenger numbers.

Let’s not forget the LRT losses for the last 3 years now come to £550m. Most of that is due to the cost of the DCO and Dart while LLAOL is on to a nice little earner even being paid by the council during the pandemic.