Just remember the current exchange rate which strongly favours airlines with pockets full of £££££'s paying for fuel etc in $$$$$'s.

A UK based airline advertising and courting mainly UK clientèle will have an easier job then any airline base and flying Eastbound.

The weakness of the £ against......(cannot find a Euro symbol on my keyboard) will make life hard for any UK only based airline flying into Europe.

Noticed that there are 8 arrivals & 7 departures tomorrow(Christmas Day) for which Wizz account for some 60%. With normally no flights, or at a push, 1 or 2, on the 25/12, this must be a record.

I was thinking this myself. Just looked at the Notam and it would appear that the airport is open for the full 24 hours today. I think this is a first as the airport would close for a least a few hours when nothing was scheduled to arrive or depart. It wasn’t that long ago I can remember the apron floodlights being turned off and the terminal being closed.

I believe that there are also around 20 biz jet movements scheduled today as well.

With the exception of one occasion three or four years ago when it was decided to shut for a few hours, the airport has been open all day on Christmas Day for some while. I know I've been there on many an occasion. Yes, these days there are usually quite a lot of biz-jets.

Happy Christmas everyone.

easyJet had a flight last christmas day at Luton, EZY9384 SAW-LTN which was rescheduled for christmas morning after being cancelled on christmas eve!

Just to add fat to the fryer, which VVIP factilies are closed today, Farnborough, Biggin Hill, Oxford, Northolt, Southend??

Happy Xmas to all PPRuNe'rs.

Biggin is closed entirely today.

MaxJet 767's
 

I don't think SilverJet will want to go near them! :=

From what I have read, the MaxJet 762's were very early versions, and the FT says part of the blame of their downfall was due to their ageing fleet and aircraft were regularly going "tech" and maintenance costs were far greater than the airline ever imagined.

SilverJet got there fingers burnt with their first 767 they acquired from FlyJet and cost the airline dearly. When it had to go in for unexpected heavy maintenance and delayed the start of their second LTN-EWR route.

Northolt open on a Bank Holiday? C'mon, be real - it's still an RAF aerodrome & everybody knows that nowadays, the Airforce can't afford to fly at most of its aerodromes over weekends and on public holidays... :hmm:

With all the commitments required to fight 2 wars, every RAF ATC unit is operating well below its unit pre-determined staffing level (or so I am reliably told).

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles...tingency-plans

Quote from the Times of Malta link Butter the Bear provided, about Air Malta...

Pleased Luton can be of service! :ok:

Lets see who's next knocking on the airport's door?...

BAA Strike?
 

Who's plans Diverting their LHR & LGW flights to LTN?

What can Luton take from LGW/LHR/STN in case of these strikes occurring? I would have thought that both Ryanair and EasyJet would want to transfer as much of their business as possible from Stansted, and that LTN's first priority would be existing airline customers?
Even if that just amounts to putting more capacity on Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, GRO/RUS, etc it would be beneficial for the locos, one would think. But of course, I'm sure Air Malta will be welcome, perhaps they would consider a more permanent move north of the smoke?

Gonna be interesting times during the BAA strikes with Luton being the only London Airport airport capable of taking most of the LHR/STN/LGW traffic, im sure Emirates will send their flights to BHX where they already operate, maybe Singapore Airlines to MAN? be nice to see the American Airlines STN flight operate into LTN though!

Glenn

Certainly remember it - in fact it happened on two or three days due to industrial action at LHR by the firemen if I remember correctly. Certainly recall lots of Sabena 707's!

In the past the airport has packed them in when it has had to.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2...hstandshg9.jpg

Gonna be interesting times for Luton during the strikes, I work at LTN and am lucky im not working during any of the strikes :)

In addition to favouring its own airline clients, Luton will not want to turn away the 100 or so executive jets that come in every day. They occupy the equivalent of 12-15 stands (54-56, 17, 20-25, 60-61, 17-19). And they make the airport operator a tidy sum...:cool: