All the reason why it needs to be improved then!

There is absolutely zero chance of the Liverpool Street-Stansted line being improved substantially in the next 20 years or so. It doesn't feature on any future plans that I have seen, and it is a massive infrastructure project to increase the capacity of a rail line running through an inner city area serving an airport suffering a reduced passenger throughput.

FRatSTN - you seem to be expecting that a new owner of STN will be able to reduce fees whereas all indications are that it will need to raise them, as I argue above.

BAA are projecting future profit per passenger 60% higher than it is now - that looks like a price increase. So does the fact that the new owner will be servicing £1bn debt (= more than it does now) from operations.

Racedo is right in thinking that money is available for I'm not sure how good an investment Stansted is. The last 4 years have demonstrated that passengers and airlines prefer Gatwick and Luton (mainly for their locations), and Stansted suffers from 70% of its business being with Ryanair - an aggressive and formidable competitor and ruthlessly awkward customer!

@LGS6753
It depends on what you mean by 'substantially'. There was an outline plan to add an extra track for a critical stretch in North London of the London Liverpool Street - Stansted rail line. This would have reduced journey times to Stansted Airport by approx 5-10 minutes and added the capacity for more trains. However, the plan has been shelved for the next 5 years, due no doubt to the decline in Stansted Airport passengers.

There is also the possibility to add a second tunnel and track into the airport, which would again decrease travel times marginally and add capacity. This would need funding from the airport.

Beyond that, there are pie / sky 'thoughts' for a hispeed rail line to Stansted / Cambridge. Not before 2050, I would think.

Did it not occur to them that the decline in passengers may be a bottomless pit if they don't start making the airport more attractive for people using public transport?

It's all well and good waiting 5 years....by which point I doubt we'll see any major improvements in the passenger numbers at STN and then they'll put it off again!

I fully understand the merits of STN for anyone living north of Stansted, because the driving options are fairly good and there are a lack of other decent airport options until you get to EMA. However, that catchment area is pretty much a finite resource, there's only so far people will drive before the costs of petrol and parking add up to more than the additional cost of a flight from a regional airport. I think that the real question is how are they going to tempt more foreign passengers in to using it as a viable London airport, with such a slow creaking railway line and return tickets now over £30?

The train tickets at Stansted being so expensive is probably down to the rail industry. A 1-week return between London and Stansted Mountfitchet (a few mins from the airport but on the main line to Cambridge and not a separate spur) costs £22.60
A 1-week return from Mountfitchet to the airport costs £4.90
A 1-week return from London to the airport costs £31.50

The reason for the price disparity is that the train company does not sell the cheaper offpeak tickets to/from the airport but sells offpeak tickets from London to Mountfitchet

I suspect that tickets to the airport are treated as a cash cow to effectively subsidise train services in rural parts of East Anglia. There are no votes to be had from foreigners, but residents of East Anglia can vote in the UK. Furthermore the only people travelling every day by train to Stansted airport can partake in the scheme for reduced fares anyway, leaving nobody to protest

Stansted is the only London airport where road coach services to/from Central London continue to be a significant ground transport option, with two competing operators. This in itself reflects the perceived poor value of the train.

Meanwhile, when travelling out to STN last week in the evening peak hour, I had the carriage to myself for the final leg into the airport, and yet I was sat directly alongside the lifts exit at the airport. The train really doesn't get the usage you might expect.

London's fourth largest airport?

Who popped in at #3 then? Are things that bad in Essex?:}

Surely you haven't forgotten that Luton will end up as a 4 runway airport, so leapfrogging all other London airports, and putting STN into 4th place....

The original article says UK's fourth largest airport (not London's). Hence Manchester is in the mix at number three spot.

Feroman ... Will you be changing your name to MAGMAN now??

EZY will cancel TLL (26th Oct), BCN (6th Jan) and ALC (16th Jun) but will launch RAK, SOF and SSH in mid February.
Latest news - easyJet plc

Please can anyone explain why an easyJet flight (G-EZFG) recieved a water cannon arch greeting from the local fire service last Sunday? see Airbus A319-111, G-EZFP, EasyJet (U2 / EZY)

Serious responses only please.
Thanks in advance
G-APDK

Captain retired - his last flight.

A4

Please can anyone explain why an easyJet flight (G-EZFG) recieved a water cannon arch greeting from the local fire service last Sunday?

Not sure of the specifics on this one, but probably something to do with new route launched for the winter schedule. Didn't they launch Cagliari? Not sure if this is a new route, but looking at the list of routes, I think it is.

Luxembourg got its first Gatwick flight last week which was flown by a pilot who is from Luxembourg and it too got a water canon salute...

No, A4 is correct, it was a Captain's last flight before retiring!

Cagliari has been operated from Stansted for several years since moving across from Luton.

DH

A route moved from Luton! :eek:

Now that would've upset a certain thread! :D

The short list
 

LONDON--U.K. airports operator Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd., formerly BAA, has short-listed four bidders for Stansted airport.

The shortlist includes,

Manchester Airports Group.

New Zealand investment management company H.R.L Morrison & Co. Ltd.

U.S. buyout giant TPG

Australian company Macquarie Group Ltd.

Let the 'Dutch Auction' begin.