The other way to think about this is that Farnborough is now so busy because the biz jets often can’t get into Luton

I think that it is 28,000 per year with severe restrictions at weekends. TAG want to massively raise the number of movements allowed. Needless to say, the local councils are somewhat aghast with this concept as part of the original planning approval for the huge infrastructure upgrades also contained this restriction on movements which TAG were happy to then abide with.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b296119e-d...nclick_check=1

I wonder how many of the affluent passengers realise that to fly in and out of Farnborough means that you are spending a proportion of the flight in uncontrolled Class G airspace. No matter just how good local radars are, slow moving targets (like gliders) don't always show up and TCAS is only good against other aircraft with transponders.

TAG have recently bought the land from the MOD.

http://www.shstar.co.uk/news/2019/20...s_land?rss=yes

According to a man in the know. Farnborough will be doubling their hangar size shortly. This was approved back in 2003 by the local planners. What is interesting is that TAG are are going ahead without the Sec State's movement expansion approval simply as the cost of raw materials will dramatically rise leading into the massive regeneration around London with the 2012 Olympics.

If they don't do it now, they wont be able to afford it in a couple of years.

So where does that leave Luton's expansion plans? http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...1.blogger.com/ Sadly, probably shredded!

Now is the time to expand with the Spanish juggling finances within the BAA towers!

New Ryanair route?
 

There is a Ryanair advert in the local weekly newspaper advertising Beziers in south west France as a new route from Luton commencing on 1 April but there is nothing about it on Ryanair’s website. At present there is a Bristol-Bezier flight at the moment. If this a new route it will make it the 14th destination from Luton operated by Ryanair so unless there is some reduction of flights on the existing routes this would be a “W” pattern. One thing the advert is not advertising Brest but this route is bookable on the website, interesting?

I think it might be an error. Brest starts again on 1 April and is bookable, but was not mentioned in the advert. Therefore I think it should have read "Brest" and not "Beziers".

Thanks Buster for the links, I'm in FAB next week so will see what the man on the street their knows;)

For those that have yet to meet me, I am in advert number 2!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=8EtU36Im0kw

So they finally managed it... 10 million Passengers a Year!
 

LTN has today confirmed on their website they have reached 10 million passengers over a 12 month period!

Its been along time coming, but they did it! :ok:

http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/new...n-the-air.html

Well done to everyone at Luton Airport!

10 million!

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...g?t=1203029434

Yes it is good to see the magic 10m pax figure passed at last. It was just missed out last month. Also, I see Jan pax was up 5.5% to 647,593, so decent figures in what is probably the quietest month of the year.

By contrast, probably because of the ryan & Air Berlin cutbacks, STN saw a large drop in pax of -9.3% in Jan, and down 0.6% for the rolling 12 months.

Nice to see that LTN's bucking a trend :ok: Just a shame that some of LLAO's efforts end up in LBC's pockets:{
Still on 'hold' whilst the Town Hall dithers:hmm:

This is indeed, a fantastic achievement given the local council 'albatros' with which LLAO has to work.:D

What makes it even more of a quite spectacular milestone is that these passengers have all been serviced by an airport whose infrastructure - airside and landside - (and obviously, excluding the expanded and 'new' terminals [Main & Silverjet]) has remained largely unaltered in the last few years and where the road system feeding the Airport - although being upgraded - is presently quite appalling.

I wonder just how many more passengers could LTN have handled with a proper road system and improved airfield (aprons/taxiways) infrastructure...??

Hopefully, if the expected recession doesn't bite too hard, once the current road construction is completed perhaps the figure might top 11 million? :ok:

10 million passengers. LBC really must me 'raking in' the profits!

I understand LBC gets £3 per passenger. £30m will pay for a lot of trips investigating town 'twinning':E:yuk:

Surely it's £3 per departing passenger - and then only those who pass through the main terminal - so that would only come to £15 million. (That is close to the sums shown in LBC and LLAOL accounts.)

I think you'll find that they don't get a thing for Silverjet, Harrods, and other exec passengers.

Presumably the owners of the infrastructure (LBC) are supposed to make the whole lot over to the tenant (LLAOL) and allow them to keep all the profits without paying any rent?

:hmm::hmm:

Your point is well made about the 'landlord' (LBC) and the 'tenant' (LLAO) - however, I think you'll find that LLAO would have much preferred a 30-year 'tenancy' agreement with a 'rental' agreed for say a three or five year period because this then would have given the Airport Company a fixed outgoing around which it could plan its business.

The only question I would ask about Luton (happily, not as a payer of council tax to LBC) is "Were the hell has the £15M or-so gone?"

Returning to the subject of LTN, one of the spin-off benefits to LTN of STN increasing its charges is that it makes it just that little bit more viable for LLAO to offer deals that undercut it's Essex competitor. This probably accounts for the resurgence in interest in LTN by several operators - but the main impediment remains a lack of stand capacity during peak hours, and the continuing need for medium-term investment by LLAO to cater for any increase in demand.

I expect that is considerably more than £15m for 5m departing passengers (dp). The £3 per dp was a 2000 figure and the concession fee was originally index linked with certain step changes - so unless ACDL has renegotiated the original deal, I would imagine it is closer to £4 than £3 per dp. In 2006, I recall that the fee to LBC was c.£18m.

You can, of course, by a lot of art work for the town hall or have some very grand parade for that some of money.

The concession was let in 1998 and must have been a good deal for the operator cos ACDL spent £500m on buying TBI which gave them 23 years remaining on the LLAOL concession (as well as BFS and CWL - the only other profitable assets in the group).

If it's £3 per departing passenger, I bow to your superior knowledge, Antilla. However, even £15 million pays for a lot of the unnecessary bureaucracy and politically-correct nonsense that seems to spew from Luton Town Hall.

Unless things have changed, LBC get in theory £1.43 per tinminal passenger.