Building work set to start at LTN
 

The view from stands 3 to 9L is set to change as a new enclosed walkway is to be built at Luton. The walkway will be accessed from the first floor domestic lounge which will lose its domestic status. The walkway will extend from the old Duty Free hexagonal building and will end by stand 9L. Below the walkway 5 holding lounges will be built. Passengers will still have to walk across a short length of tarmac to reach the aircraft, as no air bridges will be built. Stands 1 and 2 will get a ground floor covered walkway that will link into the main walkway via a staircase. The walkway will be finished in a similar material to the new terminal building. Work will start in the next week or two.. .. .FBO Signature are to build a new hangar that will hold 5 x 737’s in the North West Corner. The hangar will replace the existing Signature hangar that is part leased to Scott Airways and will extend to Honeywell’s hanger. Luton Airport’s Admin building Percival House will also be demolished to make way for the hangar.

LTN MAN, is there a second floor to the new terminal? and is it (if there is one) going to be used. And will they add air bridges to it?

'Holding lounges' - They have been described to me as the equivalent of a shed!. .. .Some Airlines are already making noises about not wanting to use them!

Might well be a tin shed, as I believe the lounges will be unheated

Building work to start at LTN....
 

They could start by knocking down the City Centre.....

So, How’s it all going LTN Man? looks like quite a bit of work is going on.
They also seem to be knocking a building down across from MAL head office.

"Knock down the city centre"!!!!

I support Luton TOWN!

No way is Luton a city!

HaHaHaHaHa

Expansion plans were on the table in 1980 when I first started at LTN and very little has been done to improve things for the airlines and the travelling public.

Demolish LTN and build an airport...:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Sorry Viking, you are wrong, they have a wonderful Tinminal that B & Q could be proud of!

If the local authority had been allowed to borrow money for development on the open market in the 1980's, things could have been so different. Alas, the concession process has only hindered the airport's growth.

Passenger numbers are up on last year. The current airport operator is focusing on growing the biz jet market, which yields a handsome profit.

I have seen animated pictures of the new walk ways and they should address the complaints by passengers of getting windswept and wet walking to thier planes on the tarmac. easy actually instigated the plan as part of its re-newed landing/passenger charges with the concession.

Luton cannot be compared to a proper BAA airport, but very regular tales of waiting over 2 hours for luggage at the claim dont help the public's perception of Stansted.

Loggerhead

The building being knocked down is Percival House which for many years has been the building the airport has used for admin. etc.

The whole of that area is being re-developed to house a massive new hanger for Signature Flight Support. Rumour has it that it can house up to 6 BBJ's at a time. The existing Signature hanger in that area (the North West corner) will also be demolished.

If you refer to my learned friend Buster the Bear's recent post, you will see how this is in line with the airport's intention to develop biz operations even more.

Well I flew out of Luton for the first time today...they're wasting their time. Putting a pretty bow on a piece of sh!t may look nice, but it's still a piece of sh!t. Knock the whole thing down and start again. Preferably somewhere else.

Zulu

Your coments indicate that you really do understand airport economics and the geography in the UK (sic).

Precisely where would you put it? No doubt some government Johnny will come up with - "I know let's close Luton and re build it at Stansted.. and whilst were at it let's build a new town there too so that in 10 years we can double glaze their homes and have more people trying to stop flying from happening".

Or we could build a brand new airport in the Thames... Cher Ching GBP 20bn please - and who will pay? Gov't, BAA, that profitable airline - BA, EZY, FR or the pax. And when do you want it????????

Get real

Does anyone know if the TBI were successful in their bid for the ex car factory next door?

I'd heard that they were hoping to buy it to improve the access routes (How I don't know, I live 80 miles from both Luton and Stansted, it takes me 2 and a half hours to get to the former, and 80 mins to get to the latter:rolleyes: :rolleyes: ), and also to expand the facilities (terminal - not big toilets).

Factory contents auctioned off yesterday to pay for de-commissioning of the site. I would guess that this process will take a good while.

Site would make for good low cost houses close to a low cost airport on a brown field area.

By the very nature of Luton's low cost customer base, the airport cannot afford to provide all its customers with a first class building. It functions and in my regular opinion, does so very well!

Nearly 7 million passengers for 2002 seem to agree. Not bad for an under developed and poorly funded (Over the years) operation.

The super stars that use the biz jets seem to have no problem with the place either.

One complaint, I love sarnies, but they are too expensive, not too many picnic baskets to steal from either!

A post from another Luton Town FC fan...

I've got a copy of a book called The Story of Luton International Airport By Jaimie Glass and written in 1988.

It gives an interesting history of the developement of the airport and ends with a few comments on the future (as seen in the 1980s). Apparently in 1985 the Airport published "a lengthy and comprehensive document entitled "Towards Five Million" which laid out objectives for the future development of LIA". This target was expected to be met in the 1990s - which I guess it just managed to do by the late 1990s with easyJet. However, in the 1980s the then new terminal was expected to be enough and the traffic would come from charter flights and the redirection of flights by the government from Heathrow. How things changed.

I have used the airport often and know it's not the best designed one in the world, but it's convenient for me and functional. I do think the fact that easyJet don't indicate which plane is for which destination can cause problems and when we arrived the other day we had to be bussed to the terminal as we were near the Britannia hanger. We then got delayed by a tug blocking the road.

So will Luton expand much more, or with the easy/go merger will their growth stagnate further or will they even reduce their activity?

As far as I`m aware while they are building the terminal easyjet is paying lots of money to Firemen and LLA staff to path their passenger on the ramp £40 per hour.


Unfortunately, ezy staff get only £4.50 per hour.



Ha ha ha ha

It'll all change when TBI manage to annoy EZY enough and they move to STN!

Oh, been here before havent we? - Ryanair!

Don't forget TNT who were also poached by the might of BAA. The cargo ramp was designed for a TNT 146 operation but they moved out before the job was finished and the stands were never much good for larger aircraft. Metro is eyeing up the cargo area for their new ramp as I hear that the next major building job at Luton should be 3 new stands for a new cargo area.

I also hear that TBI want to buy some of Vauxhall’s car parks for long term parking as a new tunnel is to be built between the fire station and the existing tunnel so they will lose a chunk of their long-term car park. This new tunnel has nothing to do with airport operations but is tied into the £20 million government grant for a new access road to the Ibis. As well as improving access to the terminal the road will link to a privately funded road to be built from the Ibis roundabout under taxiway Alpha and coming out on the other side of Taxiway Delta. The road will serve a massive greenfield development by the side of the 26 threshold of industrial unit, hotels but no housing. The development will go right up to the county border.

As for passenger numbers they are actually on the way down as the airport has been hit badly by a drop in the charter market.