Seems to just an early morning issue although that is no excuse but with the overflow security area in use the queues become manageable. Just a shame that Luton is a victim of its own success.

Any new stand numberings for the new VVIP complex as there will be two new areas?

To be fair to David I think he raises a valid point about security and I don't think getting to the airport, one and quarter hours before departure is cutting it fine, especially if you are only travelling with hand baggage!

Many Low Cost Airlines only open check-in two hours before departure and can easily take 30+ minutes to drop the bags off and boarding passes (That is the same at many airports)...

So, by the time you have done check-in, you are in the realms of queuing at Security at around the same time David is, who has just turned up with his hand luggage.

Im not on here to knock Luton again, but I think us LTN fans forget, how much better facilities can be and are at other UK airports. Was at East Midlands the other week on a 6.30 departure and sailed through security in less than five mins and Birmingham a few weeks earlier and took no more than ten-fifteen minutes.

Birmingham is only marginally quieter than Luton and East Midlands is a fair bit more, but both airports were busy at the time and just shows they can manage their security queue flows at peak times and have enough lanes open to match demand.

Nothing NOTAM'ed yet

Yes but what is Luton like now when Security Zone Two is open as davidjohnson6 was talking about his visit last spring before it opened?

Well, I last travelled through Luton on Monday, 4 March at 0530, near the peak time for queues, with a flight at 0715, and I have to say, I was quite surprised how easy it was getting through security. Yes, it was very busy, but all the gates seemed to be open, and there certainly wasn't any waiting on the stairs, 15 mins max to to reach the departure lounge. On my return, a few days later, we arrived back at 19.50, and ok, the airport was reasonably quiet, but from aircraft steps to the pick up zone, including luggage retrieval, was 20 mins. I think that was a record for me. I had no complaints and was probably lucky to some extent. The challenge for the airport is to make that more the 'norm' and that probably wont happen until the terminal expansion is approved, and an enlarged security is moved downstairs.

Well there is one major stakeholder suffering because of queues, other than the passenger - and that is London Luton Airport.

Its within their interests to get passengers through security quickly; it gives them more time to go shopping. No doubt the airport gets a % of all sales.

Absolutely Dannyboy.

FEBRUARY PASSENGER FIGURES
 

The February 2013 passenger statistics have now appeared on the CAA website. A total of 578,646 passengers used the airport down 0.5 per cent on 2012. The rolling 12 month figures is 9,599,744 up 0.8 per cent.

A lot of departures into Israel today ahead of the Passover festival. A couple of charters into Eilat-Ovda, as well as the normal routes into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

Will the El Al B777 be putting in an appearance in the next few days?

Naw just 767-300's as far as I am aware.

I notice a thomas cook 757 flight due tonight from tel aviv is now cancelled.

El Al 777's @LTN...
 

Just done a search on El Al's booking website, doesn't look like El Al are increasing capacity as much as they have previous years, with no multiple daily frequencies next week, but it could be possible flights are booked up and not showing in the booking engine as sold out.

BUT, Wednesday's flight LY312 with a departure time of 12.30pm from LTN is showing as a 777-300!

All the other flights which are showing as having seats available this week are scheduled to be 767-200/300's...

73W - is a Boeing 737-700NG !

I have no issue with people correcting me, when making a valid point, but when the person trying to correct me, cannot even be bothered to verify the information, that annoys me and pure laziness!

Just to confirm what I posted earlier is correct, I have cut and pasted the information from El Al's website!

Flight 1 Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Departure: 12:30 London, United Kingdom - Luton
Arrival: 19:25 Tel Aviv Yafo, Israel - Ben Gurion International, terminal 3


Airline: El Al Israel Airlines LY312 e Duration: 4:55
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200/300ER

Mr Gilesdavies

Apologies thought I had linked it.

Anyway telex print out actually says a B762 on Wednesday with a 763 on Thursday.

My apologies too, I shouldn't posted in frustration!

You could well be right about the aircraft type then, if you have access to industry related systems... I could only go by the information in the public domain, and that being the El Al website.

Amadeus and Sabre system says it will be a B777-200 on 27th.

EXTRA RYANAIR FLIGHTS
 

At a quick glance looks like Ryanair´seem to be operating an increasing number of ´W´ patterns - i.e. the first Dublin this morning (Monday) and a Malta during the week. With the start of the summer timetable it will be interesting to see how they pan out. Good for the airport in extra pax and not taking up stands overnight.

LY213
 

Hello gilesdavies,
I thought your request for info regarding this flight was interesting. I found one site stating the flight will be on a Boeing 767-200 and according to SeatGuru the service will be operated by a Boeing 777-200! Like yourself I am none the wiser!

El Al
 

Flights now showing as a 777-200 tomorrow morning and an Arkia 757 late afternoon.

For passengers wanting to catch a coach between the airport and London Victoria there was the Green Line. Then easyBus started up in competition and the two services merged. Always thought it was free enterprise but it seems that it was a contract awarded by the airport. Now it will be run by National Express who will lay on 150 services a day!

International Trade / National Express celebrates Luton Airport and US contract wins THEBUSINESSDESK.COM

I don't think Greenline are going anywhere and this move by National Express is just really to introduce some more competition on the route...

Greenline's website states a new bus timetable, which only came in effect on the 24th March, so seems like they are here to stay. Download the PDF from the below link:
http://www.greenline.co.uk/uploadedf...313_010213.pdf

I would imagine the Airport will possibly market the National Express option to London as their preferred bus operator on the route and give them the convenient bus stops outside of the terminal. If they are people that wanted NX to come to LTN.

When the press release states buses up to every 10 mins at Peak Times and up to 150 buses a day. I wonder if these will be dedicated buses to this route, or if they will just divert more buses to and from the Midlands and North travelling up and down the M1 to call at the airport?

If you have ever been to Milton Keynes Coachway, which is a major National Express stop at Junction 14 of the M1, I would imagine they have a similar number of buses calling there each day and with similar frequencies. None of these are dedicated MK to London services, and just buses stopping enroute as they go North and South on the M1 to their final destinations.

At the moment National Express don't even claim they operate into London from the airport

Our services arrive and depart from bays 4, 5 and 6 situated in the front of the terminal building.

We run the following services direct from London Luton Airport:

Service 707 to Northampton, 7 times a day
Service 737 to High Wycombe and Oxford, 8 times a day
Service 767 to Leicester and Nottingham, 9 times a day
Service 777 to Coventry, Birmingham up to 11 times a day
Service 787 to Cambridge, 10 times a day
Milton Keynes, 29 times a day
Stansted Airport, 27 times a day
Heathrow Airport, 20 times a day
Gatwick Airport, 10 times a day

Hello gilesdavies,

I think the dates for the next El Al 777-200 arrivals are on April 2nd 10.55am and April 5th 08.55am.

Easy increasing Tel Aviv flights to 11 wkly for W13/14, up from 9 this winter. Also, El Al have 6 wkly for the same period, up from 2/3 this winter. Quite an increase in winter capacity. This summer sees a big rise, due to a substantial increase by EL AL, especially in the peak summer months.

This increase in EZY TLV is at the expense of another route or are we seeing an additional aircraft or better utilization in Winter?

Don't be silly, easyJet add capacity to Luton with more aircraft... You have more chance of pigs flying! :ugh:

Sharm El Sheikh seems to be down to 3 times a week up until January and then increases to five times in February (the schedule this winter was sixe times weekly)... So I'd imagine this is where the capacity is being taken from to free up Tel Aviv.

This chopping and changing of schedules and frequencies at Luton with easyJet is getting tiring now.

Im getting pretty frustrated with trying to book a flight and every year noticing the schedule is constantly getting chipped away. Limiting the days you can choose to fly, compared to the previous year!

Even though Luton is considered a "London" airport, the schedules offered by easyJet and Ryanair, definately more in-line with regional UK airports. Reducing frequencies to a destination, in favour of flying to more places.

Go back a few years ago when Ryanair increased their base at the airport to four 737-800's, they only flew to twelve destinations, they now fly to in-excess of twenty with the same equipment. Dublin is a good example, where they use to fly five times daily, now were down to two or three a day.

I noticed the other day, easyJet announced a new route to Bergen in Norway from Gatwick. They seem happier to fly from there, with direct competition from Norwegian and BA. Luton is scream out for some Scamdanavian woutes. :rolleyes:

easyjet winter 2013/4
 

Surely this is a part-release?

I have never seen anything like it and although Monday, Thursday and Friday seem okay the Tuesday and Wednesday flights even in November seem awful.

On a January Tuesday and Wedneasday BHX matches Luton on Geneva with just one flight - it must be provisional?

Aberdeen 4-5 a week, Amsterdam 2 on some days with EDI and GLA just 3 mid week.

I know the post Christmas holiday period does see cuts everywhere but I checked some late November dates and although not as bad it does seem down on previous years. If anybody has time to check the Tuesday and Wednesday November flights to confirm but I am only finding 20-25 flighst a day.



Pete

Something has to give, surely? Is there really the demand for the number of services?

Would be a huge loss to Luton in my opinion, if El Al decided to leave the airport, due to the fact easyJet will undercut the full service offering.

Wizzair is to cease Lodz by the end of May.

Have you guys not seen Stansted's EasyJet schedule!? I don't think Luton is anything to worry about in comparison. Let's hope you're right that it is a part-release. 6 a/c at Stansted to say the least is outrageous. I don't think they're right yet though since Mondays had 15 early departures and only 10 late arrivals in Luton in January.

But myself from Leicester, OltonPete in Solihull and gilesdavies in Northamptonshire... we need not worry! If this is EasyJet's new way of serving London, we all have Southend as our alternative! What a lot of good that is for us!:rolleyes:

No but I have departures on Tuesday 14th January 2014 below:

0645 AMS
0710 CDG
0735 BFS
0805 GVA
0840 FAO
0840 GLA
0845 EDI
0900 TLV
1210 MAD
1415 SXF
1500 CDG
1520 AMS
1710 BCN
1715 GLA
1810 EDI
1830 DTM
1900 BFS
2000 EDI
2055 GLA

That is not right at all. Monday 13th January 2014 has 41 departures, compared to 19 on the 14th:eek:

I checked out all departures from Luton on Tuesday 12th November and Wednesday 13th November 2013. Tuesday totals 23 and Wednesday 26.

Was that your letter in the H&P this week? Was a good read.

I confess I am the airports most staunch supporter via the local papers and hated by the likes of LADICAN, HALE and the others! :) But if you look back at many of my comments over many years I always complained that the anti airport brigade purposely misinform the general public. Fortunately (though after me I should point out) the airport very recently raised this issue too, so I must be doing something right? Evidently those anti airport campaigners have gone mysteriously quiet? I wonder what they are currently planning...:confused: But I will be waiting for them! :=

So to get all the extra Romanian and Bulgarian folk in, are there additional 'one way' routes planned?

They have been arriving at Luton for years. I kid you not, the large hoop gold earrings, head scarfs and general clothing gives them away as they head on foot down the hill with their luggage, as many of them can’t afford a bus fare.

I have yet to see any of them walking back up the hill with their luggage. Maybe they are here to stay or they have made enough money selling clothes pegs and lucky heather to afford the bus fare for any short trips home.

Does it really matter how many departures they have, cause you don't fly them anyway, so why complain. They are a business after all and they are doing the right thing by following previous years statistics and cutting back in unnecessary flights. TLV is a very lucrative and good earner for them hence why the route has seen expansion both at LTN and MAN. Stop moaning about the cutbacks, unless you actually fly the routes concerned, you really have no right to complain.:ugh:

Both the new RSS stands are now in use (only an Atlantic ATP on the South Stands today)

Looking from landside to airside the new stand numbers are 80 (L/H) & 81 (R/H)

Regardless of what one thinks about current EU policy on freedom of movement, do we have to have pejorative references to Bulgarians and Romanians (actually anti-Roma prejudice generalised across whole populations) on the forums? I have known a number of Bulgarians and Romanians who have been living and working (very hard) here for years already. I also know lots of English people who don't work at all and don't appear to want to.