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.