I was hoping FlyBE might pick up this route, but its been some time now, since the route was announced it would be axed by Aer Arann and nothing has materialised...

I also think there is a lot of potential business the likes of FlyBE could make flying out of LTN, flying routes to cities where easyJet or Ryanair's own aircraft are simply too big with an A320 or 737-800.

Opening a North London hub with few Bombardier Dash 8's or even EB-175's based out of the airport would be brilliant. But in reality FlyBE, are loosing money and in the process of restructuring their business, if anything cutbacks are likely.

Over the last few years we have seen a gradual watering down of the airlines flights out if Luton, with frequencies turning from twice daily, to daily and now a few times a week and also becoming seasonal.

The other airline I am watching closely in a European airline called Minoan, they have recently announced they will be basing a Fokker F-50 at Oxford Airport are going to be flying to Edinburgh and Dublin.

They have stated they are interested in basing up to four aircraft in the UK, as they see a lot of potential for niche markets.

WORLD ROUTES: Minoan Air Outlines UK Expansion :: Routesonline

http://www.routesonline.com/routes-t...1869749724001/

Adria, are they returning this coming summer?

Found this on the council’s website. http://www.eplan.luton.gov.uk/planne...-62-1_01_A.PDF It is a letter of objection to Signatures new hangar by Harrods as they claim it will reduce their ability to handle aircraft by 20%. The letter is dated July and Signature has got its permission but clearly Harrods are not happy.

Adria
 

Buster - see post #414.

OLY1B

Thanks 1 Bravo, I missed that.

Domestic air travel is going in the wrong direction. More people are going by train rather than plane, hence the culling of these routes.

Rightly, airlines should be focused on profit rather than the possible prestige/protection of some markets. Protecting unprofitable markets is the reason why US domestic air travel is such a mess - flying to places with no passengers as a defensive tactic.

As for Ireland, I dare say no small airline would take on Ryanair in their own backyard.

Backyard
 

EIR are doing just that and LTN to Roi is in the plan for S14 :D

At the expense of Southend? Funny you should mention this, a normally bad source of information who is wrong more times than he is right even though he works at the airport mentioned that Aer Lingus will be pulling out of Southend at the end of the summer season. I just dismissed his comment but maybe…..

LTNman

I wouldn't say that's out of the question.

The SEN-DUB becomes DUB-SEN wef 1 April 2013 in order to try to improve its performance. I'm sure the figures for the summer will be studied carefully to see what positive effect this change has.

I'm surprised that no one has taken up the WAT-LTN, although it really does have to operate in that direction to maximise its potential so perhaps that's where the difficulty lies. The total WAT-LON pax numbers for the past couple of years would certainly suggest the route is still viable.

Expressflight

I am sure you are correct, as I said my information source is usually wrong.

The only route I can see Aer Lingus operating to Luton would be the Waterford service

Monarch winter 13/14
 

Quick look shows a few changes to timetable for next winter.
GIB goes up to 4 wkly from 3 ( Wed added)
ALC goes down to 2 from 3 wkly ( Thurs gone)
ACE goes up to 3 wkly from 2 ( Thurs added)
FCO goes down to 2 from 3 wkly ( Mon gone)
SSH new 3wkly Thur/Sat/Sun
LCA gone completely from a wed flt?

LTNman
Why only Waterford,they could add Cork or Shannon

Monarch have shelved Larnaca from Luton?! I'd have thought that would've been one of their most popular routes. Heck from Luton they only had to fill 221 seats each way, each week. One A321 each way each week.

Monarch's A321's are 214Y config for your records

With Ryanair operating into those airports from Stansted it would be a tough call.

Monarch winter 13/14
 

I suppose for the new Sharm El Sheikh service to take effect, another route of a similar-ish sector length had to give, unless the airline had been willing to base a new aircraft at the airport.

During the winter months in Cyprus, tourism on the eastern side of the island (Ayia Napa and Protaras) more or less shuts down. It is Paphos and the Limassol area most where most tourists goes, and I suppose the easyJet service covers this.

Shame to see Larnaca go and hope it returns for Summer 2014.

I did initially think the Sharm El Sheikh route was becoming over saturated with easyJet operating it 6x a week, Thomson twice weekly and now Monarch 3x weekly. But after coming back from there a few weeks ago, I can see why they want a peice of the action too. Both on the outward and return flights easyJet, they were at least 95% full and Jan/Feb is their quiet season!

Im interested to know how Monarch's new service to Munich is going?... I appreciate during the winter months the service is probably popular with skiers, but unsure what market the airline is attracting during the summer months.

Munich is major city in Germany, but never really known it to be a major tourist attractions with Brits in its own right. It is a major commercial centre, but with only three or four flights a week, I doubt they will be attracting many business travellers.

Would be great if they could drop it and maybe fly twice weekly to both Dubrovnik and Venice.

Taken from Business Sale Report.................


Luton, Cardiff and Belfast airports up for sale
Sun, 24 Feb 2013
By Chris St Cartmail


Luton Airport, Cardiff Airport and Belfast Airport have been put up for sale by Abertis, the Spanish infrastructure conglomerate.

The company has hired AZ Capital and Citigroup to explore options for its airports division that owns 29 sites around the globe. Only 40 per cent of the company's €720m profits now come from Spanish operations, as its homeland is beset with recession and high unemployment. This has fuelled the company's drive to expand overseas with recent acquisitions of highway concessions in Chile and Brazil.

Pressure to book profits has been added to Abertis this month in the wake of the decision by Bolivian President Evo Morales to nationalise the country's airports, a significant stake of which was owned by the Spanish firm.

There is little doubt that Abertis Infrastructuras is keen to focus on those activities producing highest returns, in countries that are still on a growth curve. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is more infrastructure potential in developing countries than, for example, in Europe. Combined traffic numbers through Luton, Belfast and Cardiff airports rose less than 1 per cent in 2012 over the previous year – hardly a high growth market at present.

Nevertheless, airport assets that have been sold of late have attracted serious interest at serious prices, with Stansted and Edinburgh as prime examples. Chicago’s Midway airport is also back on the market with several suitors pitching bids.

UK airports to be sold as a block or individually? Didn’t the Welsh assembly want to take over Cardiff?

Abertis don’t own Luton they lease it so can they sell the lease without council approval?

What about the redevelopment of Luton? At the very least this will delay things by a year or two and who is to say that a new company will go ahead with the Abertis plan.

LTNman

Abertis may sell UK airports as it tries to ease

This article implies that they will be sold individually as the Welsh government is expected to make an offer for Cardiff in the next few weeks and says Belfast and contract to run Luton may also be sold.

Will be interesting to see what happens at Luton and Belfast.

If Abertis get anything like the ludicrous sum MAG paid for STN they will be laughing all the way to the banco.

If taken over no company is just going to go ahead and spend £100 million on another company’s expansion plans as they will have their own ideas.

The council will not be happy and might want to scrap the Abertis contract and find their own operating company as Abertis will be looking for the highest price while the Council will be looking for the highest investment so to expand the airport.

Signature might be able to hang on to stands 16 and 17 under a new operating company.

There are a lot of ramifications to all of this and for the short term will create much uncertainty.

Abertis was always reactive at Luton only spending money when the infrastructure was under strain instead of being proactive and spending money up front to encourage further business.

This is what upset the council in the end and forced Abertis to promise to spend money which is now looking unlikely.

This lack of airport investment is also what upset the Welsh Assembly and caused the nationalisation of Bolivian airports operated by Abertis.

It would probably take well over a year for the airport to be sold and for contracts to be exchanged...

Hopefully the expansion plans will be well underway, by then?!

Maybe BAA could go full circle and purchase the lease for LTN, with all that money they now have in the bank with the sales of STN and LGW. That way they would get their hands back on a second London Airport, but this time by organic growth.

Luton could attract a very hefty price tag to continue the contract with LBC, purely because of the shear potential from the airport. Having plenty of spare capacity which is a rarity for the London Airports and a council owner that is eager for growth... The airport could also offer to renew it or extend the contract to the owner.

Also any new owner is going to be keen to maximise their investment, so hopefully expansion would be at the top of their priorities!

It wouldn't surprise me if the Northern Ireland Assembly did something similar to Belfast International as the Welsh have done and wanted to purchase the airport. They are very keen to grow Long Haul traffic from the province, and have proposed to scrap the Air Passenger Duty.

Interesting idea but not likely unless they were to do what Northern Ireland's aviation industry has been calling for for a long time and create an aviation development strategy. Then there would be all the crying from BHD so I'm not sure it is doable....

Will LBC have the balls to sell the airport, might fill their financial black hole?

Can't see that happening. The way things are the council gets a tidy sum each year. If they sold it they are selling a council assest and you can only spend the money once and one day all the money will be gone.

I did initially think the Sharm El Sheikh route was becoming over saturated with easyJet operating it 6x a week, Thomson twice weekly and now Monarch 3x weekly. But after coming back from there a few weeks ago, I can see why they want a peice of the action too. Both on the outward and return flights easyJet, they were at least 95% full and Jan/Feb is their quiet season!


Nov-April is peak season for Sharm...Its a very popular Winter resort due to the reliable weather. Although its also a year round place the Summer temps of over 40c mean it becomes less popular then!

Airport privatisation: The ‘R’ word (renationalisation) hangs over the world’s privatised airports | CAPA - Centre for Aviation

Major section on Luton in the second half of this link

Absolutely right LTNMAN and the reason that Abertis will find it difficult to sell. The council currently pockets £50-55m per year for doing absolutely jack. Why would an operator want to see that sort of a leech stuck onto the side of any investment they might want to make? You can understand the reticence of Abertis to invest previously when the license term was so short and the chance of recouping any significant investment was hampered by the LBC leeches. The best thing for the airport will be if LBC sells the airport in it's entirety alongside the Abertis concession. Only then will LTN have a chance to reach its full potential.

Actually the sum paid to the council for the year ending 2011 was £24,935,178. The previous year it was £21,848,491. The operating profit after fees was £23.8 million on a turnover of £112.1million which is quite good.

You have to remember that if the airport was sold for say £750 million, which is less than a third of what Stansted was sold for, with an interest rate of say 3%, this would cost £22 million in interest payments.

I agree the lease term is too short but it has never stopped companies wanting to run the airport as there is still money to be made.

Abertis owns Cardiff and Belfast but I didn't see much investment there. It was only because the airport was council owned that forced Abertis to plan for expansion. If they had owned Luton they would have done nothing.

To be or not to be?
 

LADICAN is now calling for a delay in the airport expansion programme due to a potential sale! In one respect this might be a blessing as LBC might be able to push their original ideas (which I preferred) for full length taxiways and new aircraft stands with any potential new leaseholder? Just maybe a new operator might consider a modest 900 feet runway extension within the current perimeter fence and possibly want to increase passenger levels to a modest 25 million? Or possibly Abertis might decide to sell it’s other airports and invest even more money at Luton? Only time will tell.

So then Tartin, you would like to see the airport sold off to a company - probably not from the UK - and any profits, including I am sure, nice fat cheques for their executives and managers - to depart from the UK at the expense of the Luton ratepayers who have one of the lowest Council taxes in the UK thanks to the levy on passengers using the airport. The airport is a very valuable asset and I would suggest most people living in Luton would like to see the airport expanded creating more jobs and it is only the nimbys who mostly live in Hertfordshire who do not see any financial gain which are against.

BLIMEY! The concession fee has increased, £50-55m per annum. Was once £1.40 something per tinminal passenger.

Tartin Ton
What a strange way of looking at things. Surely the fact that Luton BC receives £millions from the airport each year is to be praised? It helps to keep the council tax down and pays for the services which councils provide. We live in a mixed economy, not some kind of devil-take-the-hindmost economy where only the sharks survive.

Albertis going away will be a good thing. To slow and lack any ambition.

As has been mentioned above countless times, the money the council makes each year from the airport is the prime reason the nimbys will lose out on their anti expansion agenda in the long run. Thats why I never understad why people worry about it so much. Luton borough council needs the airport to grow BIG TIME. The debt keeps rising..

The income from the airport allegedly paid for the towns new swimming pool and gym which was the location of that awful splash TV show.

I hope they sold it all over the world like X-factor and banked £1Ms :E

LBC are certainly not using airport income to keep Council Tax down!.....Last year it instead used nearly £400,000 to cover the loss on a local festival!!:ugh::mad:

Not really true.......luton town is a very diverse society...that was nothing to do with the airport.

The implication was that LBC has used airport income to balance the books for a loss making local festival (not that the airport was involved in the festival!!)

Love Luton Festival loss covered by airport | Anglia - ITV News

They are a useless lot, No matter who gets elected they seem to like to waste money and destroy whatevers been struggling along. Allowing the building of a New stadium for the footy team wouldnt go a miss...

The airport is the only thing keeping this town alive.