I think the flight supplement comparisons done above is a little difficult to compare, as others have mentioned.

Tour operators base their basic prices for a package usually from a "London Airport", and not necessarily Gatwick...

Gatwick usually has far more frequencies of charter flights to the popular destination likes of Tenerife, Faro, Palma, etc... Maybe flying 4-6 times a week and only once or twice a week from Luton.

The NIL supplement flights will usually be based on the most anti-social flights to the destination, which are going to be the least popular. For example a flight to Palma departing a London Airport at around 10-11pm and flying back from Palma at 3am.

Due to the shear number of flights and frequencies from Gatwick these flights are more likely to be from there.

Did you check other flights from Gatwick for the same week to the same destination and hotel? As they may have had a flight to this destination on another day with an even lower supplement from Gatwick than the Luton option.

I see there was a departure to Southend today on the departure board. Would this be a proving flight for a new service from London Luton to the east coast? :E:E

On weather cancellations, just looking at the weather forecast for the next week, there could be significant disruption to services both from Stansted and Luton, if not at the other London airports too.

Substantial snowfall expected due to "the beast from the East"; an extremely cold air setup coming down from Scandinavia.

Schipol are already cancelling services tomorrow morning.

That far out forecasts are inaccurate. Beast from the east is a figment of weather spotter forums !

Kursaal Flyer!

How about the Bear to the west?

Can't see any snow forecast at Luton for the next 7 days! Nor Southend or Stansted, maybe a little in Norwich.

Been snowing the last 20 minutes, never trust a weather forecast. Lucky it was drizzling before hand because these big flakes would have set by now.

Over on the IOM thread, it's reported that FlyBe are stopping LTN-IOM from early Jan. If true, will this affect LTN-JER too?

LGS - the Luton-Jersey is also suspende from early Jan to end of March

Any ideas what the big news from Easyjet will be at Luton Airport tommorow?

Maybe it is something to do with this. A snippet taken from the Anglia TV website......

"Luton-based airline easyJet is launching a plane with a team of Santa Clauses to celebrate raising over a million pounds for the children's charity UNICEF.

The money was raised through passenger donations and will help the charity protect mothers and children against seven deadly childhood diseases, including tetanus".

M

EZY & UNICEF
 

The UNICEF coloured Airbus was sitting on apron yesterday.
Latest news - easyJet plc

Damn...

Got my hopes up for some big announcement, of new routes or expansion from the airport...

Don't get me wrong, the UNICEF thing is great news for the airline and charity, but was hoping the news would benefit the airport and possibly be growth.

Re IOM by coincidence I was looking at Luton to IOM for late January but Flybe web site shows nothing after 07/01/13.

--
Nick

BE IOM
 

I think it restarts on 12th April

Looks like the Airport operator has submitted an incomplete application for expansion to the council for approval.
Thus nothing until next year now!?

'incomplete application for expansion' - does that mean they did not include the plans for the 4 runway in the application !!!!!!

Why of course not, only the two runway one but it got lost as it was done on the back of an old £50 note and was mistaken as a bribe!:E

More info here Luton Airport operator submits incomplete application - News - The Comet

I think the NIMBYs are clutching at straws at this one. I dare say incomplete applications happen relatively often and a resubmission will have no impact on the validity of the bid.

As for The Comet - should they really be fronting a campaign like that? Whatever sells papers!