FlyBosnia stopped flying to Luton in 2019 I think, well before Covid became significant in Europe

Wow, is that all of them, how many do Menzies employ at LTN ?

I think it was about 50%

Menzies MAN just had a cull from 440 to 110, although, a big chunk of that whould have accounted for the collapse of Flybe. I suspect Menzies LGW will no doubt take a bike drop in numbers too.

Flights were suspended from the end of Feb 2020.

To my knowledge the airline has cancelled all previous scheduled flights and now operates seasonal / adhoc / charter flights only, using leased aircraft as it no longer has its own aircraft or crews.

Anyone know what's going on with the Sun Express? Looks like 3 attempts to land and considerable time in the hold.

https://www.flightradar24.com/SXS77J/2599e06d

Crosswinds?

That's what I assumed - Looks like they had gusts up to 35kts forecast......

Aircraft diverted to Birmingham and is now on stand

Looking at FR24, it carried out one missed approach, then did two circuits north of LTN. Tracked east and did 6 or 7 circuits north of Buntingford, another two north of LTN, a second missed approach, then off to Birmingham for a straight-in landing on 33.
Meantime, various arrivals and departures at Luton.

Construction update
 

Only emergency loans from the Council is keeping this project going, as LLAL would be bankrupt without a £60m cash injection. £18m is required for the Dart taking the spend to £243m

Luton Airport Parkway Station Dart footbridge under construction
https://i.imgur.com/8l3Epq6.jpg

Still a gaping hole at the Dart station interchange. At some point Network Rail will increase the length of the building for station access to the railway tracks from the ground floor for local residents
https://i.imgur.com/S8jw7hO.jpg

Careful examination might show the yellow ceiling being installed at the far end. What is the point of the gap between the walls and the roof apart from letting the rain and wind in?
https://i.imgur.com/72o89Ne.jpg

First view of the Central Station roof for car passengers after exiting the tunnel.
https://i.imgur.com/8AZuGvR.jpg

Above the Dart maintenance area. Taxiway Foxtrot is once again an easyjet storage area as is the Run Up Bay and the South Stands
https://i.imgur.com/DH8nZ2d.jpg

Brackets are being installed to the metalwork to support the roof. Also the platform sliding door framework is in place
https://i.imgur.com/pa4XGiB.jpg

With a £243m debt to pay off plus interest payments, a maintenance contract to pay for and 24/7 staff attendance the question becomes how much of a financial burden will the Dart be on LLAL and the towns council taxpayers who will never use the service?

With rail passengers decimated will LLAL run both Dart trains or will they cut back to a single track/train operation with a frequency half that of the existing shuttle bus operation?

What LLAL and the Council have not mentioned is that the existing service is operated by the rail franchise holder Thameslink at no cost to the airport operator, the airport owner or the Council. All that will change next year when LLAL, which was formed as just a collector of rents and franchise payments can now add transport operator to its list of property developer, airport investor and land buyer.

As for the airport operator, they will be congratulating themselves for refusing to put in a single penny to this project.

Another thing to consider is will Thamelink actually cease the shuttle bus operation as it is part of their franchise agreement with government? Will they run a cheaper bus service so cutting demand for the Dart, as the scheduled travel time is only one minute slower but actually stops outside the terminal rather than a two minute walk away.

As for the passenger cost to use the Dart? It hadn’t been announced yet but is expected to be the UK’s most expensive 2km journey by public transport.

Whether it costs a lot of money or not, it is needed. The airport will never be taken seriously by some without it.

We need to stop thinking about today in this country and thinking about tomorrow. Yes we are in an extraordinary situation, but LTN as an airport is a viable business.

Actually it is not needed. The airport reached its legal capacity of 18,000,000 in 2019 some two years before the Dart will be finished. The Dart will be needed if the Government approves the DCO application to be submitted next year. If it is refused the Council and LLAL will have blown £243m of Council Taxpayers money, as the Dart will not add a single passenger to the airport.

Work on the Dart should only be started on approval of the DCO and by the new concessionaire as part of their agreement and not by LLAL. Also remember that the existing terminal station will become an intermediate stop and that the running gear and electronic equipment will all be in the wrong place so the Dart will have to be shut down at some point to extend it.

The rail franchising model is now dead. Rail operators will enter in to agreements with HMG to run its railways for a fee, and HMG will own the fares. That will (presumably) be the opportunity to amend the Thameslink operating agreement.

The airport may be a viable business but what is not viable is the current financial arrangements between LLAL and the Council. So many local council tax paying residents are effectively being kept in the dark due to the the many forms of obfuscation the Council employ. Its time a much more concerted effort was made to fully expose the situation.....Unfortunately, the local Labour MP is effectively in bed with the majority Labour croneys in the Council so no chance of any redress there!

boeing_eng is spot on. Reasonable Freedom of Information requests are being turned down by the House of Secrets regarding HM Treasury Business Case guidelines and their justification for building the Dart.

Something to hide? Absolutely!

Council now under investigation by the Information Commissioners Office for withholding information as the Council appears to be desperate to hang on to one more secret.

So who does the Council represent? Well it is not the people that is for sure. They are trying to protect their own self interests and Council careers, as many think dodgy deeds have been taking place behind locked doors in darkened rooms.

At the risk of going off-topic - check the proportion of postal votes, often a sign that things aren't right.

Is it worth having two Luton threads? One to include news about the airport, routes, recovery etc. and the other for people to post their gripes with the political landscape with the local council and airport managemenr. There's not much changing with the latter, just the same gripes being posted every other post including in irrelevant posts, just to get a moan in. Why the gripes clearly have some foundation, the posts are about as newsworthy and interesting as if somebody decided to post every other day that easyJet operate from the airport on days that have a "y" in them. It's drowning out other content to the point of this thread becoming unreadable.

Point taken but moaning posts as you put it concern the airports owner and the people of Luton who we are told own the asset. I don’t think I ever mention political parties by name. I will try not to repeat myself in future though.

Please do continue to enlighten on these matters! The financial affairs and developing situation of the public pumping money into this asset, I for one find fascinating and seems like a scandal waiting to be uncovered! This is information completely relevant to this thread!

"The rail franchising model is now dead. Rail operators will enter in to agreements with HMG to run its railways for a fee, and HMG will own the fares. That will (presumably) be the opportunity to amend the Thameslink operating agreement"

I think Thameslink is already a managment contract so little change in that case.

Well said Manx. I pay my community charge here in Luton and therefore want to see the airport redeveloped and thrive! Like yourself I am more interested in new routes, new airlines and passenger levels rather than the constant negative comments which in my opinion seems to be politically motivated.

I have high hopes for the airport to recover in the next couple of years and a vision that Luton should become the UK’s Third Airport.

Agreed - Luton is the top performing airport in the UK at the moment more than doubling its market share in August 20 compared to August 19.

And jumping a place to become the UK’s 4th busiest airport in August. So pleased to be the giver of good news. Thank you Wizz, as I never saw that coming this time last year.

The positive news continues with planning permission about to be granted this week for yet another hotel. This one will have 8 floors and contain 171 bedrooms and will be located in the hotel section of the airport along Old Airport Way. The new hotel together with the exiting hotel next door will have reduced parking of 0.24 spaces per bedroom.

The hotel forum of Luton has objected stating that there are already well over 3000 nightly beds available in the town and this is already unsustainable.

Another new hotel opposite the Ibis has yet to be started with another 2 in the pipeline making a potential total of 9 at the airport..

Just my two penneth on the subject of attempted post suppression by those that don’t like a message. Thankfully this is not the Southend thread where intolerance to some posts can lead to a stream of abuse by those that cannot handle what is perceived as a negative post even when it is based on facts. I would post there on rare occasions but stopped a few years back as I didn’t like the personal attacks as the group motto was to shoot the messenger and to pretend everything was rosy.

Now we have the hints of that phenomenon here. Certainly some of my posts have not gone down well so I normally restrict my thoughts as why bother to have an opinion that is usually made through personal observations when it is shut down by fans that never come to the airport from one year to the next but consider their opinions as being more valid.

This thread should not only cover new routes and airlines but management style including the decisions of the owners. While poor decisions have no impact on most people’s lives when they live in a town linked to its local airport Luton is different. The town has seen first hand what happens when a limited company owned by a local authority gets it wrong. Mass redundancy of council employees, services binned with the poorest being forced to pay more but airport spending increased due to an airport that cannot pay its borrowing debts.

Those in charge and running the show try to hide the truth from its citizens so it is refreshing to see the beans spilled here where "facts" that would be buried are revealed. It has been suggested that Luton should have two threads. I actually agree, one for the good news only posts so we can hear about the latest boring Wizz route to a place no one has heard of for supporters and spotters and this one that digs deeper and exposes what is really going on for those that want the full picture.

I live in hope that we can all tolerate views and opinions from those that that choose to post here for a more rounded view of Luton including positive and so called negative posts if that post is relevant to the airport.

Must be better for the customer though keeping rates low?
Can't remember how many times I have paid over £100 at Gatwick (pre Covid) because everywhere else was full, for a few hours sleep!

Looks like a few ostriches here are just spotters hoping for new route news. You can find that easily on the news wires.

I am a non resident of Luton. I am not a spotter. I embrace all the flow of Rumours and News about Luton and also contribute. Are we to see comments about airline management/governance outlawed on other sub forum? If you want to start a a new threat please title it Luton For Spotters on another area of this website please. I'll continue to contribute to this forum which is very enlightening. I also hope to watch from afar, as the muddle that LBC finds itself in slowly unfolds.

£36 and £42 being displayed yesterday as I drove past.

The new hotel got passed by the Planning Committee last night that will be located in the car park of the Marriott Hotel. Also student accommodation blocks got planning permission to be converted into hotels sighting demand from an expanding airport. In reality the accommodation blocks will end up as accommodation for homeless families from London and homes for asylum seekers, which is already happening in the town.

The red building is the new hotel. The Marriott Hotel was built at lightening speed (or was it the second Ibis?) as the rooms were built in Poland complete with fixtures and fittings and assembled on site.



https://i.imgur.com/SvMl6Jg.jpg

It's not about making a thread for "spotters" - nobody is asking about new planes, plane movements or whatever it is that floats their boat so that's incredibly wide of the mark. It's not even about suppressing criticism of the airport which would have been a better response as it looks like there is plenty to criticise.
It's about the exact same points of critcism being repeated and slipped into every other post even where they're not linked. Post criticism by all means, but ideally when it's new info otherwise it just kills this thread as it reads like a Daily Mail-style hate campaign. There's plenty of good content including the criticism, but its been getting drowned out.

Manx.....There is plenty to criticise when it comes to the current shenanigans between LLA and the Council. It needs fully exposing and occasionally there will be duplication of info. If it doesn't interest you then ignore the posts (but to imply an intolerance to a certain message content on a forum like this is basically censorship) I rarely post on the subject, but as a local resident and a 30+ year airport worker I feel very strongly about the current situation and the way its being handled by LBC!

While CAA passenger figures always come in higher than LLAOL figures due to the airport not counting infants, August is somewhat different.

820,000 = Airport figure https://mediahub.london-luton.co.uk/...ngers?ref=Home
622,035 = CAA figure, which is substantially lower.

So why would that be? Did the airport "cook" the figures in the past to keep them below 18m and are now including every possible passenger including business jet passengers to raise the figures for its press release? Even allowing for business jet passengers the difference is over 28% so who are they counting?

As an ex employee of the airport, the information must flow. Plenty of websites and other forum for spotters.

Ciao Fly for now!

Over the last couple of years I had suspicions that this forum was being hijacked by LibDems supporters. It was in a sense easy to conclude this when so many comments mirror that of a high profile local councillor.

I know because Frankly I have personally known that individual for decades!

I strongly suggest you political motivated individuals look for another forum that is more aligned to politics!

Wiedersehen

Afscheid

Au devour

Viszlat

I would suggest that if politically motivated, somebody have a re-think. Obscure aviation forums ain't the best way of getting the message out...

Or possibly a genuine mistake?

Booked pax v those that showed up?

That is why I say Council and don’t mention political parties of the Council. Out of interest all political groups have sat on the board of LLAL so are all tarred with the same brush although one grouping dropped out as they were being gagged by LLAL confidentiality rules. Confidentiality rules created to keep information away from the Council taxpayers.

When big spending plans were committed by LLAL, which has caused many of the problems, all 3 parties were represented on the board of Directors but as no minutes were published we don’t know if any party objected.

Good point. The airport only gets paid for the ones that turn up which the airlines keeping the airport fees and taxes.

Over the last few months, I would expect no-shows are on the high side, so the booked pax v actual pax debate may be more pertinent than usual.