Not quite. LLAL rather than LLAOL gets a bailout from the council to pay the interest on the money it has borrowed from the council.

It has been reported in the press that the chairman of the board of directors of LLAL who is a councillor is also the finance portfolio holder of the Council so will be asking himself for the money. It was also reported that residents will be paying an airport stealth tax from next year if they want all their bins emptied.

Wasn't it also reported that Luton has applied for emergency funding from the government? It seems they crowed about avoiding 'austerity' owing to the airport revenue but are now positioning themselves to blame the government when their plan fails. Seems rather like a country which allowed itself to become over dependent on oil revenues being tanked when oil prices fell and they had done nothing to mitigate the clear risk. Perhaps Luton is the new Venezuela ?

https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/po...-luton-2900579

The above report states that the Council has already been given £11.26m of emergency funding by the Government but they want another £50m to bail out their airport. Let us all remember LLAL was set up as a zero risk company but the Council got greedy and went on a spending spree with borrowed money. Now it is the governments fault where the truth is it is all the Council's fault.

There is a full Council meeting tonight where zombie councillors will ask no questions, as they are devoid of independent thought and will vote the new budget through after taking turns to once again blame the government. They will blame the government because they will believe what the Council leaders are telling them.

Maybe the Board of Directors of LLAL who are all councillors should resign but they won't. They will be in the chamber tonight voting through the budget. Conflicts of interest won't bother them as it is standard practice to vote on airport matters.

I'm aware that Wizz has been one of the more aggressive airlines in trying to restart large numbers of flights. Does anyone have a rough idea of what sort of loads they have been seeing in/out of Luton in the last week or two since operations largely restarted ? 10 % load factor ? 50 % ? Higher ?

87.6 passengers per flight for June

Luton Stats
 

Passengers 61,969 down 96% from 1,674,161 last year
Year to date 3,029,410 down 64% from 8,518,550
Rolling 12 months 12,510,829 down 28% from 17,376,461

Airport CEO said he expected 70% less pax for full year 2020 so as more capacity comes online I suspect things will look better later in the year. Obvoiusly subject to pax appitite to travel.

I know it is fashionable to blame local government, especially the aforementioned poster, but some points as I understand...
1. In 2010, council funding was around £120-£130m a year from central government.
2. In 2020, council funding was around £10m from central government.
3. Central government encourages councils across the U.K. to look for commercial means to raise funds. Meaning that if there are any economic shocks, local government are in the firing line when they are already 90% down in funding from 2010 levels.
4. LBC have the advantage of having a key national asset in their constituency. It has enabled council tax levels to remain lower than others such as Central Beds, but to raise funds there is no mechanism to increase these above assigned national caps that have already been used this year.
5. Lots of other councils are in the same position.

Band D Council tax

£1,894 Bedford
£1,872 North Herts
£1,850 Luton
£1,828 Stevenage
£1,809 St Albans
£1,392 Tower Hamlets
£1,236 Kensington and Chelsea

The Council says that Luton's council tax would be £370 more if it wasn't for the airport taking band D Luton to £2220.
Makes you wonder how they spend their money when everywhere else is below £1900. Ahh yes funding Carnivals and trying to get City status. Meanwhile in my part of Luton the library was shut, the community centre lost its funding, the playing fields and sports pavilion were closed.

Government cuts to Luton certainly played a major part but I have to wonder if the Government sees the Council with an income source why not cut back their own funding.

Wizz air
 

Wizz air announce more new routes from Luton

Luton to Valencia 3x weekly
Luton to Ibiza 4x weekly
Luton to Alicante daily
Luton to Santorini 2x weekly
Luton to Mahon 3x weekly

Malaga also increasing to twice daily several times a week

For the first time in months I saw 3 aircraft queuing for take off today with a string of arrivals.

They could also have used their advantage to build up some reserves just in case the future wasn't as helpful as the past. Still, they didn't go into commercial real estate did they?

Well LLAL owns plenty of buildings of all shape and sizes at the airport that are let or empty. They then spent £19m buying a farm and its land and also bought the land surrounding the Dart station at Parkway for future development of a multi story car park and offices. The farmland has now been abandoned and is growing no crops and is full of thistles. The farmhouse, which was listed, has been knocked down this year as the roof had fell in.

New route for Wizz with no doubt start up assistance from the airport?

More like the Council that used to offer rebates to the airport operator. This is mentioned in the airport operators accounts.

Wizzair

With the addition of the new routes from 7/8th August, a further aircraft will be added to the base.

I thought Luton was out of overnight stands?

The overnight slot seems to have come from TUI for Summer 2020

More importantly many of Luton's stands require a nice little ride in a standing room only coach, which makes an aircraft interior seem empty on a full flight.

Today that Easyjet uploaded its S21 schedule shouldn't they have uploaded their new enhanced flight programme out of LTN, the one we read about lastmonth, with new additions and increased frequencies? No sight of it...

Don't expect to see anything like the S19 program in S21 with EZY, yet alone any expansion in frequencies.
WUK on the other hand..... ..

With new routes and frequencies at Luton from Wizz, desperate deals must have been done. The airport operator sees income from its drop off zones and parking as its saviour while no doubt giving away or even paying now for Wizz routes.

Is the Council now providing further money to LLAOL via LLAL for route subsidies as it has done in the past? What exactly will that £60m bailout fund be used for when every other part of the Council is being savaged? We know about the extra £18m for the Dart, the extra £5m for the DCO and the money to pay the interest on the loans LLAL cannot afford to pay back but is there money left over?

LLAL has said there will be no dividend to the Council next year either and that they require a further £23m bailout money for that year. Do they have a crystal ball that no one else can see?

No LLAOL spending on the final taxiway link to runway 25 for at least the next 3 years and the same applies to the new stands. Also there is a big battle taking place regarding force majeure clauses regarding Covid 19. It is going to cost LLAL or LLAOL millions for whoever loses for what could be a legal battle.

143 passenger movements yesterday. The number is slowly increasing (it was running at around 120 last week). Anyone know what the pre-Covid figure was?

Does anyone know what easy are doing about Amsterdam from Luton. I'm supposed to be going for the day on the 12th August, but no longer feel the need to go! The only way I can get a refund is if they cancel my flight. I can change it to another date but if have to do it 14 days before hand and not have to pay to change it, which you have to do within the 14 days.

If you are booked to fly from Luton to Amsterdam on 12 August at either 0925 or 1615, then your flight will likely go ahead. The Dutch have largely removed quarantine restrictions for UK residents

I'm booked on a later flight, wasn't sure if it was operating and it was sold out or it wasn't operating. Thanks David.

When easyJet release seats for the following season, it tends to be a replication of the previous year - minus any they don't intend to operate. Usually around November, they add all the new additions.

348 passenger flights a day in July 2019. Most of Easyjet is still laid up

guessing you’re a glass half empty fella?

It's a fair comment when referring to the Airport's largest operator, with around 25 aircraft based!

Depends on the definition used to describe Luton’s largest operator.

By now, I suppose that should read "formerly Luton's largest operator".....

Gradually more from EZY restarting, Aberdeen, Inverness, Zurich & Jersey. I suspect they are looking very closely at demand on future bookings rather than adding flights and hoping.
Is WZZ really filling 3x Sofia a day?

Hasn't RYR actually scaled back from their initial 1000 flights a day across all Europe statement?

That might not be an issue soon if currently parked up frames are ferried somewhere else which is cheaper.

You would be surprised about WZZ. Lots of full flights to SOF and VAR (a bit less so in the opposite direction).

Well that’s not great is it with no social distancing possible. Social distancing has never been practiced at Luton Airport anyway so nothing has changed. The airport does have magic clear gels called hand sanitizer that protects everyone and everything so they have done their bit whether used or not.

Got your own sanitizers? Don’t bother as they will be taken off you by security as it is considered a security risk so no wiping down the arms of your aircraft seat so take a paper version.

Cases of Corona are on the rise in Luton so is a cause for concern. More of a concern is that the government has handed the power of lockdown to the local authority. At work we have already commented that the only place in town that will never be locked down is the towns airport.

Top tip, never ever get in a taxi at the airports taxi rank.

Also don’t use any independent valet parking companies at Luton unless you have your car chemically deep cleaned before use. Even the airport run valet parking should be considered risky as well as the whole airport experience.

Second wave coming? Absolutely and it is only a matter of weeks away.

Spanish eyes, only 34 more cases over the weekend, that is over 100 in less than two weeks, so it won't be long before the airport is at a standstill again, or countries refusing to admit anyone that has been within Luton.

If you consider that Luton ranks 26th place in the UK in terms of population then it can be expected to have a significant figure in terms of COVID-19 infections. However we have less infections per 100 than Bedford and according to other data it appears St Albans City is worse which suggests Luton is safer of the three!

My household has only key workers so all of us have worked throughout this pandemic and guess what? We all commute by train and equally we all go to supermarkets and we wear face masks and have a regime of washing our hands regularly. For you to suggest Luton is spreading the virus is ridiculous and unfounded!

Don’t know where you get your information from but Luton is ranked at number 5 for cases adjusted for population size but I can see is much lower than Blackburn this week. Next week could be a different story so complacency is never a good thing.

The hotspots seem to be associated with the Asian communities which is why I would never use a taxi from the airports taxi rank.

https://news.sky.com/story/englands-...ester-12032643

here comes the casual racism again that pops up on this thread from time to time.

where is your proof that the hotspots in Luton are the Asian community ??
My wife is a nurse at the local hospital and they cannot see a clear pattern to the people who enter icu apart from mostly older and more likely to have lower immune systems for whatever reason, the five hotspot areas in Luton are not all linked to the areas where people from our Asian community traditionally live.

next you will be telling us that you are quite happy to get in a taxi with a white Anglo Saxon driver.
I realise this is a rumour network but don’t let the Lack of any facts get in the way of some casual racism.