Its all very well increasing capacity to 35million a year however STN are having difficulty keeping pax numbers as it stands. American Airlines pulled out, Maxjet and EOS went bust and as of yet no other airline has taken there slots Ryanair reducing capacity for the winter down to 28 aircraft instead of the 41.

LGS6753

You are spot on !


From a Southern Hemisphere position ( where i currently am) STN will never be regarded as a serious alternative to LHR or LGW until BA or any real established international carrier start regular flights or have a base there.

Doesnt look like that will happen sometime soon.

BA had serious conviction for STN from day one didnt they-started up Go(to take out Easy , which backfired fortunately),that was it.
Maybe somebody should ask WW for his views on STN development

It makes total sense to lift pax capacity from 25 to 35mpa on single runway. It's in accordance with Government White paper and provides SE with much needed extra capacity.

Stansted may be in "the wrong place" to some but the 23-24 million pax who pass through it each year may say otherwise. In present times Stansted and many other airports will experience traffic decline but the lifting of this cap gives the airport operator, whether it be BAA or someone else, the opportunity to now focus on getting more business to the airport in future.

With STN running at 100% capacity for a good part of the day, where will this capacity increase come from unless they can attract significant heavy carriers? I don't believe any night restrictions have been lifted?

There's plenty of spare capacity outside the peak morning and evening periods. Night restrictions would have a very small impact on passenger increase as the majority of extra movements would occur during daytime. Achieving 35mpa does require larger aircraft mix, eg Gatwick, but the fact that the 25mpa cap and movement limit has been increased means the schedulers have more flexibility in slot allocation and passenger numbers to what they have presently. It doesn't necessarily mean that the 35mpa figure will be reached but it ensures best use of the single runway and terminal. The terminal and aircraft parking areas would need some more development though as passenger and aircraft movements increase.

Not even CLOSE outwith the morning rush mate.

Additional flights
 

As the cost of fuel is now well below 90$ a barrel, the LC airlines maybe tempted to increase their winter schedules.

Dont forget AirAisaX.

Flights now due to start early 2009, bookable late 2008.

A/C to be used is a A340, with Pax able to book Stansted to Melbourne I
think the passenger numbers will be high.

LGS6753, white Elephant? (Double the passenger numbers of LTN, sour grapes I think), how is it most of the negative comments on this thread always come from people that always post positive comments on the Luton thread?

nt639,

Sour grapes, perhaps.

I see Stansted as the airport that no-one wanted. In the 70s and 80s it had almost no traffic. At the same time, Luton built (and lost) substantial business with Court Line (bankrupt), Ryanair, TNT, charter traffic, etc.
Governments were always antipathetic towards LTN since they didn't own it, and they owned STN through BAA. The decision to build the current terminal at STN was a political decision, based on Government ownership of BAA and not much else. There were certainly no hordes of passengers asking to fly from there. When BAA had spent £400m of taxpayers' money on the terminal, they subsidized airlines to use it. First Ryanair (who moved from Luton on financial terms), then Go, who always preferred LTN but couldn't resist the BAA shilling.
Since the early 90s, STN has received cross-subsidy from other BAA airports, allowing it to unfairly compete with the only competitor to BAA amongst London airports. Yes, it handles 20m + passengers, but do they want to fly from rural Essex? Of course not! They are lured to STN by cheap flights, subsidized by BAA, and that's what has made STN 'popular'. Now that BAA has been prevented from cross-subsidizing, airlines are moving back to Bedfordshire - a better location for them despite less opulent and extensive facilities. Witness Ryanair basing 4 aircraft within 40 miles of their main base, lack of route development by EasyJet, Sky Europe moving, and now Transavia.
Make no mistake - airlines want to be as close to their passengers as possible, and LTN scores over STN in this key regard.
Why the emotion? Luton was/is a local, municipal enterprise in which local people have a stake, and pride. Stansted is operated by a faceless foreign multi-national, previously by a London-based bureaucracy. No pride there.

Sour grapes? Perhaps. But based on local connections, proprietorial interest and pride.

Lgs6753
 

You need help and or medication.

Sour grapes, perhaps, try definatly.

However many airlines have already hedged there fuel.Last press release I saw Ryanair had hedged 3/4 for the financial year 2008/2009

Also Ryanair have been openly critical about the landing fees.

I think that this explains more fully what a runway is used for;

Runway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

50 minutes to change flights in Stansted - can it be done? With hand luggage and online check in I reckon so.

details
DUB-STN 6.30 - 7.45
STN-VLC 8.35 - 12.00

BEWARE you will have to exit through International Arrivals and then re-enter the lounge going through security again. There is no Flight Connections facility at Stansted. Personally I wouldn't risk it unless I was happy to pay for a ticket on the next flight if I was delayed at all. Good luck.

No, No, No :eek:.

It can take you 10min + to exit the aircraft alone.
Dont risk it mate, what am I talking about risk, it cant be done.

Skipness, should be totally possible.... but is not!!
no way you will do it, sorry!!

Be careful. Ryanair flights often arrive earlier than scheduled, yes. But they also often DEPART earlier than scheduled as well! This is why check-in closes 40 minutes before STD. If the aeroplane is ready and not restricted by an ATC slot, it will go early.

Good luck.

I have flown to Dublin a couple of times on the 08.10, which is the 07.45 inbound. Although I have only flown this service twice both times it was about 25 mins late. This was put down to congestion leaving Dublin. I would be very careful because if you check in online for your flight and then miss the VLC then you will have to buy a brand new ticket for the next 'available' flight. Ryanair won't be held responsible as they do not offer connecting flights and say not to do so. Good luck if you go for this!

It's probably something similar to:

Taxi-out time: 10 minutes
Flight time: 55 minutes
Taxi-in time: 5 minutes

Which leaves five minutes for variations on the day.