A "bolt on" extension of the existing terminal across the current drop off zone may be a possibility, but a brand new terminal, at least in the next few years, will not happen.

A shocking day for the future of the airport! ACDL will not invest as the concession agreement will not be extended to pay for the massive infrastructure upgrades?

Hopefully full parallel taxiways and rapid exit turns will be constructed, but wonders as this investment being actioned.

What a great idea Lord McKenzie had to concession off the airport back in the 1990's, brought shed loads of cash into the Town Hall and will continue to do so, but at the expense of proper and full scale development.

A wise move ACDL acquiring TBI eh?

I wonder what state the airport will be in once the concession runs out as I cannot see much future investment in the place by ACDL?

Quote Doors to Automatic: "A 3000ft extension to the East would do the trick."

Given the lie of the land, much of that extension would need sky-hooks! The land falls away so much that a lot of the extension would need to be supported 120ft or more above the ground.

Is that really practical? :confused:

You mean like this?

That's the kind of thing they need!

I understand that this extension was financed by a massive EU grant. What chance does Luton have of attracting that scale of investment?

Answers on the back of a postage stamp? :hmm:

So they will go on driving to and from an alternative airport, producing a far larger "carbon footprint" in the process.
Don't you love tree huggers' irrationality?

Just noticed - there's no taxiway at Funchal, so an extension like this at Luton wouldn't provide much benefit apart from allowing in bigger and/or heavier planes.

Presumably Luton would need a twin-pier extension to accommodate a full-length taxiway, so the sun would be blotted out forever from substantial chunk of Hertfordshire countryside! I suppose they could always use it for undercover parking spaces, but the overall cost would be horrendous.

antilla

If you read the posts again you'll find what's being referred to is a 3000ft TAXIWAY extension to stop the backtracking scenario.

http://www.taylorcraft.org.uk/Dscf3833.reduced.jpg

So what would be the cost of say providing another 6/8 stands, a full length parallel taxiway(thus increasing the hourly movement rate),maybe provision of a multi-story carpark. A ballpark figure please......

Also, what is the max capacity of the terminal in its present state ?. I noticed on a news report that Mr Ullastres was quoted in saying that 10m pax would be reached this year.

So, the original grandiose plans were quoted at £1.4b. We must be talking relative peanuts for the above. Can't see much more than this happening in the next 5/7 years, but it would allow some form growth to continue, albeit at a smaller rate than was previously envisaged.

As for the longer term, terminal decline beckons.

Then you must be reading different posts!

Dave Gittins (#196) refers to "an eastern runway extension into Bedfordshire"
Doors to Automatic (#198) says that "a 3000ft extension to the East would do the trick"
Dave Gittins (#199) says: "...the major problem was pursuading Hertfordshire they should have 3000 feet of runway and the increased traffic over their county".

The runway extension to which they are all referring would bring Luton's close to the 10,000ft 'standard' length - but they have all overlooked the need for the full-length taxiway to run alongside the new extension to the East. That wouldn't be too much a problem if it all took place at ground level, but the problems of building both the runway and taxiway at around 100ft above the ground are staggering - and the costs would be astronomical.


Reason for edit: To restore references to other posts after merger of threads.

Ah, I can see the big orange thing from that picture.

Some people here are missing the vital point. Between the proposed new runway and the existing runway a new terminal and apron would have been built. This would have taken Luton’s capacity to around 30 million passengers. With the plans dropped due to the council intransigence there is very limited room for any sort of expansion.

I have already read on one of the news wires that there will be no expansion to the existing terminal.

This state of affairs was always going to be the consequence of a 30 year concession. Heavy investment can only take place in the early years when there is enough time for the investment to produce a return. Lets not forget that during a care a maintenance period large sums of money still need to be spent just to stand still like the relaying of the airports runway which I think cost around £20 million.

LTNman, spot on with both posts!

easyJet share price dropped with this news today. Don't know why, with a second runway and terminal at Stansted, plus the airspace reorganisation there will be loads of expansion available in Essex, subject to planning considerations.

A very sad day for Luton airport, but one that has been predicted for months.

Now let the brinkmanship between LBC and ADCL commence!

The signing of the partnership with the council took place in August 1998. With 21 years still to run before the operator has to hand over the airport to the council there is still time for money to be spent.

The master plan was first released in October 2005 and was no doubt being worked on in the summer of 2005 so two year has been wasted. As each year passes the money spent can only drop as the return period on that investment drops.

After 2015 I can’t see any money being spent, which will coincide with the opening of Stansted’s new runway. I wonder what will happen then?

Antilla is right - I am referring to a runway extension. 3000ft would be optimal as it would give a total length of 10000ft but they could get away with 2000ft - given the performance of long haul aircraft like the 777 and 787.

Unfortunately, there's insufficient distance from the current runway centreline to taxiway alpha to construct RETs that would deliver any significant benefit as to do this, they would have to enable aircraft to vacate the runway at +/- 50 knots which would require an angle of no more than 25 degs (ICAO recommended criteria).
An exodus to the east of the A1M & M11, and to the north of the A14...
Looks like the Council failed to learn anything from the past. In 2015, no doubt LTN will be handed back to LBC which will then be the only council in the UK to own and operate a major international airport; and we all know what happened to LTN when previously, the Council ran the show! A sad but entirely predictable outcome, given the number of nimbies that inhabit the local area, and the number of boneheads that plague the Town Hall. :{:ugh::hmm:

Who is to say that the airport will go back to the council in 2015? It could be 2028.

Maybe, but I'd put a pony on it not being operated by ACDL after 2015!
And then which commercial outfit will be willing to take it on for a mere 13 years?:confused: Still, in 2015 LBC can always waste some more of it's council tax income - they could construct a museum on the site that featured Luton's former industrial heritage (hat making; aircraft manufacturing; refrigerator manufacturing; car manufacturing; airport operating...) :hmm:

Under the terms of the Concession Agreement, Luton Borough Council and London Luton Airport Limited granted the original operating Company exclusive rights to carry on the airport business. After 15 years (2013) London Luton Airport Ltd (the council) can give 12 months notice to terminate the agreement by making a payment to the operating company in respect of the discount value of forecast shareholder distributions to the end of the concession period, as well as settling outstanding funding and other obligations.

The concession fee for the 12 months ending March 2005 was £16,524,000. The operating profit for TBI was 5,643,000.

So the bottom line is that the council can terminate the agreement by paying compensation not the other way around.

At some stage well before this lease expires I would have thought that a new lease would be granted. Even the council would recognize that investment would be zero in the closing years.

As for the council running the airport, I don’t think they are now allowed to run an airport. Was the law not changed many moons ago that airports with a passenger throughput of over 1 million had to be run independently of any council?

While most airports were sold off, Luton was rented out. While this hasn’t gone down too well here, for Luton council this is a major source of income that can be spent on the town’s ethnic minorities.