Tour operator conspiracy against Luton?
 

Every year it seems to get harder to book a holiday through Luton using a tour operator. Friends and neighbours who live less than a mile from Luton are being forced to travel down to Gatwick due to a lack of capacity. Even if a holiday is booked there is a good chance that the flight will be cancelled with passengers being switched to Gatwick to help fill the over capacity at that airport.

Next year it really looks grim for the airport as Thomson who are the largest operator through Luton appears to be cutting capacity by 50% yet Luton has the UK’s biggest catchment area for an airport that handles charter flights. What the hell is going on???:mad:

Sounds no different to many other areas of the country. I could just as easily write...

"Every year it seems to get harder to book a holiday through Leeds/Bradford using a tour operator. Friends and neighbours who live less than a mile from Leeds/Bradford are being forced to travel across to Manchester due to a lack of capacity. Even if a holiday is booked there is a good chance that the flight will be cancelled with passengers being switched to Manchester to help fill the over capacity at that airport".

as could people in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Teesside...

The simple fact is that the Tour Operators are under pressure from:

*The growth in low-cost flights from local airports
*The increasing use of the internet to self-package and tailor holidays to individual needs (and to save money)
* The growth in second home ownership, particularly on the Spanish Costa's
* The increase in popularity of medium/ longer haul destinations for the 'main' holiday

All of which is leading to a drop in demand for the traditional package holiday. What demand there is, is generally being booked later and at lower margins. Just about everyone I know who has taken a package holiday in the last 12 months has booked within a couple of months of departure and for most it is an extra break to supplement other holidays which they have arranged independantly.

With the tour operator market already fairly well consolidated, the natural response to these challenging conditions is to cut-capacity and costs and try and sell fewer holidays, departing from fewer UK airports.

The provisional data from the CAA for May show the effects of this quite clearly. 279,000 fewer passengers on charter flights to Spain & The Balearics than May 03 (a 18.6% drop). 117,000 fewer passengers to The Canaries (18.8%). 50,000 fewer to Portgual (23.4%). 73,000 fewer to Greece (11.3%). Turkey 77,000 higher (+52%). So, the best part of 450,000 fewer passengers on IT flights in May (assuming the CAA data is complete) - the equivalent of the best part of 2,500 empty A320 sectors. And intesting that the areas worst affected are those where the seat-only market is most developed.


I'd suggest that this isn't a conspiracy, it's a structural change in the industry.

682

I understand that Luton's passenger figures for May 2004 were down by around 2% year on year likely due to the contracting IT market. Overall movements were up probably due to the amount of Biz-Jets.
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You will probally find the the gatwick routes are protected as established operators do not want to lose slots. At the moment slots are not so much of a problem at LTN and STN but as LGW fills up as it was doing before when ba expanded at the airport then further charter expansion will be pushed out to the secondary airports.

I also think that the charters are starting to cut back in response to the loco's and this is across the uk not just in th SE or NW.

Figures on the Bristol Airport website for May slightly contradict the general trend of this thread.

Charter pax were up 6.15% (at 140K) compared to May 2003, whilst sched pax were up over 20% (at 272K).

Part of the inccrease might be down to new weekly charter destinations this summer (new from BRS that is) to such destinations as Corsica, Sardinia, Croatia and more flights to Turkey and Bulgaria.

Perhaps that's one way for tour operators to go - provide more niche, out-of-the-way destinations not catered for by the locos.

Twenty years ago Luton was probably as important as Gatwick in the charter market (CourtLine). Blame Lorraine Chase.

Unwise -

Actually that was thirty years ago!!!

Court Line went bust in August 1974 (I remember it well).

At that time they had around 10 One-Elevens and the two Tri-Stars. Dan-Air had 2 or 3 One-Elevens based, Invicta had a Vanguard at Luton, Monarch were up to half a dozen Britannias and 4 B720s, and Britannia were running something like 6 - 8 out of Luton including one of the 707s. There were also regular visits from the likes of Air Spain, Inex-Adria and British Midland.

The sole scheduled service was three times on a Saturday to Jersey with BMA.

Now, where's that zimmer frame.......

Spain & The Balearics than May 03 (a 18.6% drop). 117,000 fewer passengers to The Canaries (18.8%).

Surely MTL can't be picking up all that decline on their own?


50,000 fewer to Portgual (23.4%). 73,000 fewer to Greece (11.3%).

Where is the loco market to Greece, apart from EZ to ATH?

LGS6753 ah, those were the days, and not forgetting those wonderful Spantax CV990's and Balkan TU154's that appeared most Saturdays and the JAT B727's every Friday :)

I'll get me coat.....

lgs6753 and bacardi walla those were the days
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BAC One-Eleven 517 G-AZEB at Gerona in 1972 - copyright Caz Caswell

Pushed?
 

Luton Airport’s head of sales and marketing Mandy Round has been appointed director – Northern Europe for the Hong Kong Tourist Board.

She will report in to Kevin Welch, the board's EMEA director. Her northern Europe brief also includes the Middle East. He noted her 'excellent commercial, marketing and sales experience gained in several different sectors of the travel industry.'


Her CV includes stints at Eurotunnel, Lunn Poly, Stakis Hotels and Hogg Robinson.

A source close to TBI confirmed that a furry brown bear was being head hunted as her replacement! Blimey!!!!!
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next thing you know Vintage Atco will be posting about those CV990's doing 1/2 mile SRA's and then diverting to Stansted!
All I remember is watching the Tristars do circuits from my junior school window!

Aaaaahh - The Pink One-Eleven.

I spent many a happy shift crawling into her cavities (if you see what I mean - I was a baggage handler of course).:O :ok:

Catchment area has f**k all to do with passenger numbers if the airport authority chooses to charge more than anyone else in the region.

Make it more expensive to fly locally than it is to travel to Stansted and park for a couple of weeks, and it's highly likely that operators and the passengers will go elsewhere.

Even a bear knows that.

LGS6753 allegedly :mad:

nicnak. Yes I do, but £150 quid as a flight supp?

almost prof. CV990's, Vintage would not know one if he saw one, but ask him about Percivals and Autair and a Castle in Germany! Spotting in the class room eh, tut tut!
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well I was going to suggest Autair Ambassadors but I was being kind!-my first flight was in one of Autairs new 1-11's to BPK and back on one of Lutons open days-remember those!

Gosh, all this nostalgia about the good ol' days at EGGW. What a great thread.

So who remembers the Sudflug DC7C's roaring out on a Sunday night, torching blue fire all over the wings?

While we're on the subject of Court Line 1-11's, while they looked pretty from the outside, I recall a vile night flight to Athens in 1972 on one of their lime green 1-11's. Four hours in a puke-green tube with absolutely no leg room and minimal catering wasn't nice. EZY is civilised by comparison!

As for inclusive tour flights, as has already been eloquently pointed out, it's a declining market and certainly not the future for LTN. It's why airlines like MON have been diversifying into low-cost scheduled flights. I think we can see another major bankruptcy before long in the IT sector - there are simply too many holidays available at too low a price.

My first flight in a commercial aircraft from LTN was on a Monarch Britannia(the whispering giant) taking an early package to Majorca.It was a great flight & if my memory serves me correctly, it took about 4 hours & the whole package cost £29 for a week's hols.

Remember also, for £2 2s 6d, my father & I took a day trip from Luton to Southend (via STN) on a fully loaded Viscount known as the 'Scottish Flyer' which operated a bus stop service between Glasgow & Southend calling at about 11 airports on the way. Great fun!!!!!! Unfortunately, it only lasted about 4/5 months.

.....then there was the Sunday when MAOF turned up with it's B720B on turnround for TLV only to be confronted by a MEA B720 on a divert from LHR. Needless to say MAOF's security guards jumped to attention even more......:ok: