Adria...
 

Anyone know if Adria will be making a return to Luton this summer, operating to Ljubljana?

Or has the chances of this been obliterated, with Wizz now flying the route?

There website doesn't make any mention of this, but I don't think it was announced last year until about February or March.

Also for the Luton Fanboys on here, there is a nice article in Airways Magazine about Luton.

Airways Magazine - A Global Review of Commercial Flight

Good heavens - they dug that picture out of the archives - must be over 10 years old.

No pier between the eastern and northern apron.
Single story link building between the old and new terminal
Old drop off area in use

...in fact, no northern apron.

Wizzair
 

In a corporate presentation outlining their plans for basing more aircraft in Ukraine, Wizz show two additional routes from LTN to Ukraine (Donestsk in the east and Lviv in the west - the latter previously served from LTN IIRC).

Interesting routes from Ukraine planned. Just need to tie in Moscow and Dubai now. Need a longer range A320 for the latter though.

Let us suppose for a moment a Luton-Lviv route is reopened. Why should it work now when the route was dropped by Wizz a few years ago.

LTNman, Northern exit/entry at platform 1 at Parkway almost complete, helpoint live so you should be able to get to new hotel directly within weeks....

Would Luton-Lviv work now? There has been turmoil in the Ukraine market in recent weeks, so Wizz are trying to capitalise on the failures of others.

I am sure many more Ukrainians now live in the UK than a few years ago thus creating demand as the UK is an open house for Eastern Europeans seeking a better life whether they are in the EU or not.


There have been complaints on trip adviser about access to the hotel from the station. Why the new access has not opened already is a mystery as the route has looked complete for months.

Im no expert on the Ukrainian economy, but the route by all means could work. Especially now Wizzair are more established in the Ukrainian market.

As before, they launched the routes to LTN when they first moved into the Ukrainian market and were not so well known.

Also Wizzair flew to Ljubljana a few years back from Luton and Brussels, and was dropped completely due to lack of demand. Here we are now, and the route has restarted and successfully operating 3-4 times a week.

I doubt Wizzair will get any time soon, rights to fly between the UK and Moscow...

The UK/Russian agreement, only allows two airlines from each country fly between them. In this case that is Transaero, Aeroflot, British Airways and easyJet have just taken over the right BMI use to have.

You also have the issue that the UK and Russia require nationals from both countries to have visas to enter their borders. I recently looked into a trip on the new easyJet service from LGW, and a single trip tourist visa is around £100!

Would however love to see the route materialise.

Talking of Wizzair, I noticed the airline recently switched all their operations from Glasgow Prestwick to Glasgow International. This has to act a warning to Luton, they need to keep the airline happy and be sure they are offering them value for money.

All it would take is a killer deal from the likes of the new owners of Stansted or even maybe Southend, and I doubt Wizzair wouldn't hesitate in moving. The airline has demonstrated how cost efficient they are in the past, by moving airports in other countries for a better deal or if not getting the deal they want to make cutbacks to schedules.

People might laugh at me mentioning Southend, but they are eager for business, and Wizzair is one of those airlines that thinks about the price first, while happy to try new facilities and consider the inconvenience to the passenger last. Take the move to Warsaw Modlin airport as an example!

Wasn't there a problem for Wizz in Ukraine initially with the authorities being very uncooperative? Didn't that have something to do with the LWO flights being dropped?
Personally I would love the flights to be reinstated. It's a really beautiful city with very friendly people. I loved it!

Adria
 

Adria are not intending to return to Luton this summer. Given their financial difficulties it was always unlikely that they would be back; Wizz moving on to the route was the final nail in the coffin.

OLY1B

Doubt that Southend's short narrow runway would suit the A320. Even if it was suitable the airport could not handle the sheer number of Wizz early morning arrivals that pile into Luton in only around 30 minutes. Also there is the issue of aircraft needing to backtrack which would also reduce the flow rate and Southend's weedy CAT 1 ILS which would play havoc with Wizz schedules on foggy days.

I thought this was all sorted.

Luton Airport on the lookout for terminal extension architect | News | Architects Journal

Wizzair to Southend, NO, STN or LGW would like to get them!

I do think that MAG will want them at Stansted, but I think the sheer volume of traffic Wizz have now built up in Luton is going to make them very reluctant to consider moving. Surely there would have to be a heck of a good deal in order to get Wizz out of Luton.

Also, Stansted is fairly full up until around 8 or 9 am, so the early morning period when about half the days flights are would have difficulty and Gatwick is full at virtually any time and Southend is not really viable for reasons LTNman says.

I agree with pabely and FRatSTN that SEN would be totally unsuitable for Wizzair and Wizzair would be equally unsuitable to SEN's plans.

STN though is a very different matter and I'm sure the new owners might try to entice them there, but as has been said their LTN operation is now of such a scale that I very much doubt they would seriously consider moving out. Why move from an ideally located airport to one that is rather less so?

Remember Ryanair are strong to Eastern Europe from STN as well, would Wizz want to take a fight on their home turf?

Wizzair do directly compete with Ryanair on many routes across Europe as it is. I'm not so sure that would worry them as such although as you say, Stansted is Ryanair's "home turf" so the scale in this case may make it a different matter.

With Wizz now in Barcelona (BCN), Rome (primarily FCO) and now moving from Glasgow PIK to GLA... as first pointed out, could Wizz be starting to look at larger airports and that meaning STN more of a consideration to them? Not long ago, there were even strong rumours of them moving from LPL to MAN.

I think the most we'd see though is a few routes moving over so that they would operate from 2 London airports. A bit like what they do in Rome. They operate in the point-to-point model so they shouldn't really be an issue with splitting services between 2 airports. I guess we will have to wait and see what unfolds in the future.

FR
Wizz did split the KTW route a few years ago trying the early afternoon dep from STN.
From all accounts it wasn't a success especially when Ryanair turned up on the route so got transferred back to LTN.
Doesn't mean they wouldn't consider changes again but would take a long ,hard look first!

Why would Wizz want to move? The BAA failed, so why what could MAG do more? With easy slowly exiting £1.5bn International, only a bungling management would allow Wizz to depart.

So according to the anti-expansion groups Luton will be generating 80 night flights, 10 an hour, send your CVs in for jobs!

JANUARY 2013 PASSENGER FIGURES
 

The provisional passengerr numbers for January 2013 are 573,716 a decline of 1.8 per cent. The rolling 12 month figure is 9,603,445 a 0.9 per cent rise. With both Birmingham and Edinburgh also both showing a decline Luton still seems to be comfortably holding on to fifth place in passenger numbers at the moment.

This was once part of Airports Group International that originally took on the Luton concession. I guess the contracts passed through TBI and onward to Abertis?

Bolivia nationalizes Spanish-owned airports operator - Yahoo! News UK

Night Time hours?
 

Pabely,
It personally frustrates me when these anti airport groups constantly mis-inform the public. In addition to the lie regarding night flights, one group states- irrelevant of which runway is in use, all flights fly over Flamstead! From what I observe when runway 08 is in use the majority of flights fly to the north of Luton passing Leighton Buzzard area before descending over Caddington. When they depart runway 08 not all flights turn around to head west over Flamstead! Now I have been reminded in this forum to hold a mature discussion on the subject- but it is so frustrating they get away with constant misinformation. If the noise was so awful and intolerable every home in Cutenhoe Road and Strathmore Avenue and my road would be un-liveable but the fact remains that once the properties go up for sale they are snapped up! Can someone in this forum tell me what constitutes 'night time' as those anti airport campaigners are quoting 11pm until 7pm but I disagree with those hours and can not find anything to substantiate their times.

AIRCRAFT NOISE
 

Quite agree with you Lee. I think the night time hours are 2300-0600 but I am sure someone who really knows these things will verify. Regarding noise complaints - Luton has had a concrete runway since 1960 so if my maths are correct that makes 53 years, so assume when someone buys a property of their own unless there are now over 70 they knew or should have known there was an airport close by with subsequent noise. Maybe the people who have moved to the area over the last 20 years to Flamstead etc could explain to me and everybody else why they bought a property knowing full well about aircraft noise. I am sure there are many other areas in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire which they could relocate to.
Some years ago I worked with a guy whose father lived in Hitchin and complained about aircraft noise. When he went on a foreign holiday he always used Luton ´´because it was so convenient´´.
I rest my case.

The last couple of posts give me a feeling of 'deja vu'.

This is exactly what happened at SEN when Stobart's sought planning consent for the runway extension etc.. The 'antis' are not interested in the truth, but only is distorting the facts to suit their very biased agenda. I don't think you have too much to worry about though; it isn't really their ability to convince a few local people with their rants that counts. The experience at SEN was that the Council remained remarkably positive throughout and all the protesters' bluster counted for very little when the time came for the vote in Council.

I know some here are a little anti-SEN in their attitudes, but I think they may come to be grateful for SEN setting the precedent recently for substantial development at a LON airport.

All I can say is I own a property off Tennyson Road, quite close to the £1M properties and have no issue, I bought knowing full well about noise, sometimes the M1 is more of an issue. God, it's better than the Court Line and Monach/Dan Air days/nights.
Perhaps they should have bought in Berkshire!
I no longer buy Herts local papers.

It is always worth adding online comment to the anti Luton Airport articles that appear in the various Hertfordshire newspapers. It takes seconds to join and it is great getting into debate with the village idiots who always have something to say.

It doesn't take much to wind them up so it has become almost a sport as I put them right on their distorted facts.

I just might do that, sounds like fun showing some facts rather than the fiction they normally publish :E

Luton Airport petition gathers pace - News - The Comet

Scroll down the page and view the comments. This thread is closed now but this is why people here should sign up.

Most Luton Airport stories have a comment section in the Hertfordshire press.

LTNman

That's a very good suggestion.

I have it on very good authority that similar support for SEN in the local press, especially when the opportunity was used to destroy the credibility of the 'antis'' arguments, had the effect of reassuring a number of Councillors who may have been wavering.

The only advice I would offer is to never allow yourself to be provoked into a slanging match; better to let your opponents show themselves up by hurling insults at you.

Night Flights - definition
 

According to a very recent House of Commons Library briefing note:

"One of the ways in which government (central and local), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and airports themselves seek to mitigate the problem is by limiting the number of flights and the type of aircraft that fly into and out of airports during the early morning (usually from about 2300 to 0700). These are generally referred to as ‘night flights’."

CAA seem to agree: 23.00 - 07.00 local time when producing their day-time noise data, which cover the other 16 hours.

The Nimby's can protest all they want, They managed a huge crowd of about 8 people in the town center the other day.. wowy.

The council is desperate for money, The airport is what will keep Luton alive and I think most citizens of the town here realize this.

:ok: This will be one of those rare ocassions where "money talks" for the better.

New petition launched in Luton Airport campaign - News - The Comet

New story in the Comet today with the anti Luton Airport people putting in their comments at the bottom of the page. This is a good time to sign up and put a different point of view

Wizz
 

Negotiating ploy to get a better deal at LPL when it came up for negotiation.

Wizz are staying at LPL so it probably worked!

Does anyone know if the WAT route will be coming back any time soon?

Thanks!