Actually it is no worse than baggage reclaim. Maybe the video is fake and was actually filmed in the baggage hall?

Sorry this was the only link I could find that is linked to the above story. I hope people won’t take offence as the link is provided as information only.

Wizz are keeping a lot of people in jobs at LTN, unlike easy “we won’t survive 21” Jet
easy “give me government bail out” Jet
easy “ 4500 redundancies on the cards” Jet

everyone on this thread knows your prejudice against Wizz, Eastern Europeans, and Muslims.

I see that DHL have increased there flights from Luton at the start of the winter timetable after their summer sojourn to Heathrow.

Wizz to start routes to Funchal/Madeira and Gibraltar in mid-December

Wizz are strengthening their base at Cluj (Romania), including an increase in flights to LTN from 14 to 18 per week.

Clearly Wizz thinks the numbers from Romania will continue to increase despite travel restrictions from January 1st.

Easyjet traditionally doesn’t operate Gibraltar flights from Luton in the peak summer months so will they abandon the summer months to Wizz?

Blue Air's Bucharest flights will be operated from Heathrow instead of Luton from December.

Blue Air is ending Bucharest at the end of November and moving it to....Heathrow! Pretty extraordinary

So it won't be a low-cost route and Wizz will win a larger share of the London-Bucharest market.

No connections vs worldwide connections when the world starts to get back to normal.

It could be a temporary move, while other airlines are not using their slots at Heathrow, maybe the airport is able to offer temporary deals?

China Airlines moved their Gatwick to Taipei (in Taiwan) operations to Heathrow and say they will move back to Gatwick after a few months and then they continue to temporarily extend the Heathrow ops by another few months. Seems as long as the epidemic continues and China Airlines can get the slots into Heathrow they will continue.

I doubt Blue Air has the big money to purchase slots once things get back to normal.

Suppose it all depends on how long things take to get back to normal. Can't sit on slots indefinetly and not use them.

Do they need to lease slots from someone else or can anyone now apply for temp LHR slots?

A very interesting move. I suppose it makes sense with W6 covering LTN, SEN and LGW and FR serving STN and SEN. LHR will be unique in that Blue Air will hold the advantage of lower fares over BA and Tarom on the same route. Will be interesting to see how this will affect Blue Air's future at LTN. No doubt W6 will increase LTN-OTP over time in place of Blue Air's withdrawal, but I wonder if Blue Air might shift more of it's remaining routes (Bacau, Cluj and Iasi) to LHR and abandon LTN completely? All three are currently in direct completion with Wizz who could easily raise frequency.

Time will tell on whether this is a smart move by Blue Air, with no transfer agreements this could be a big cash burn whatever LHR have offered.

If the Romanian Govt don't bail out a private company, it is immaterial.

Confirmed they are after worldwide connections. They also mention better connections into London

https://www.romania-insider.com/roma...ondon-heathrow

Construction update
 

Doppelmayl, who are the manufacture of the Dart trains have now confirmed that the Dart will open in the Autumn of 2021, which is some 6 months later than originally planned. The Dart will travel at 31.3mph and will take 3 minutes 45 seconds to complete each journey. The Dart will spend 45 seconds at each station before it departs. Despite the total time coming to 4 minutes 30 seconds the manufacture states that the trains can run every 4 minutes at peak times which indicates that there could well be longer gaps or single train running during the quieter times. Each train will consist of 4 cars with a capacity of 170 passengers per train. The peak delivery will be 2,700 passengers per hour.

The first vehicle to run on the Dart route shown on the viaduct.
https://i.imgur.com/7Pzcgpt.jpg


The route crosses the bridge, which is seen in the background, before passing alongside the approach lights.
https://i.imgur.com/Z6m27l9.jpg

The Dart then passes through the approach lights. For most of the route passengers will see very little of the airport due to the tunnel and long cutting.
https://i.imgur.com/aWpwwUA.jpg

Meanwhile back at Parkway the existing passenger footbridge can be seen. This can connect to the Dart station and will be used if the new footbridge does not open on time.
https://i.imgur.com/DpimuNI.jpg

31.3 mph? Do I smell a metric conversion?

You do indeed as 31.3mph is in brackets. The unconverted figure given is 50.4 km/h, which is another strange figure. The maximum incline is 5%, which is the maximum the cable haul system can cope with at Luton. This might explain why the route starts on a viaduct and ends up in a tunnel to reduce the incline?

Another strange figure is 170 passengers per train as that means 42.5 passengers can be carried in each carriage. Does than mean that the 2 outer cars are a different size to the 2 inner cars?

They also give the length of the track as 2080m long yet everywhere else it is quoted as 2200m. From memory Luton’s runway is 2160m long which almosts splits the difference.

As usual great pics LTNMAN.
3mins 45secs at 31.3mph delivering 2700 pax per hour.
Think we will be lucky to see that number of passengers in the whole of next week.
Quiet times ahead again

An LA based private equity fund has approached AMP a part investor in LTN/NCL & LBA with a preliminary offer.

In the case of LTN it covers the AMP 49% holding.

As it was behind a paid firewall I couldn't make out whether the approach was just for the Airport Management part of AMP (headed by Graeme Ferguson ex MAG Group) or for AMP full stop!?
- found the answer in Oz press

AMP have announced that they have received an offer for 100% share buyout from US investment management firm Ares.

Just over 10 years left on the concession with the airport making major losses. In 2031 the concessionaire walks away with nothing so it must be other parts of the portfolio that is attractive as they don't even have a voting majority at Luton.

Seems that LLAL are now looking at the Dart not opening until the beginning of 2022. Also LLAOL are predicting that Luton will bounce back first and are in a good place to recover lost ground although they don’t think the airport will be maxed out to 18 million until around 2023.

If you can’t pay, we’ll take it off the Luton residents, asset strip and make a home for a flying club.

Regarding the possibility of a start of 2022 opening date for the Dart. The timescale for the project that was published in 2017 show the Dart running gear installation and controls has a one year window followed by 6 months of testing. There was an overlap with the start of the Dart installation and the finishing of the building work but the infrastructure was meant to have been finished by June 2020.

Maxed Out!
 

For the airport to become maxed out is at minimum; 22 million passengers a year!

With permissions...with permissions.

Bim in Hertfordshire is on your case with 19m let alone the creeping.

Can’t remember if the figure is 22m or 22.5 million within the existing boundary but the figure I gave of 18m is the figure that was quoted, as other figures are subject to at least two planning applications. As we know Luton Airport is unique where the operator asks the owner for permission. It is all very dodgy as the owner should not be the decision maker.

Bim & Hertfordshire are on the case even to 19m let alone any dodgy creep to 22.5m.
.

So the locals are not very happy today when these signs were put up. The motion to get the airport to fund the scheme as the parking problems were caused by the airport was voted down in part by the airport directors who are also Councillors. Conflicts of interest and a new source of income for a Council that is lending its airport £83m while cutting services to the bone.
https://i.imgur.com/n1kDJVu.png

Perhaps Bim doesn't like the airport because he can't get a flight to Uganda or China and has to go via LHR and an elecric car can't make it! 🤐
Pilots living in AL5 might think differently.

Luton won't be second busiest airport in lockdown #2

But on the first day of lockdown #2, there are 83 departures and 78 arrivals scheduled (according to Flightstats).

More like a third of that figure with 26 departures and 23 arrivals until 21:00.

Ah well...it just took 2 hours for someone to make a bit of "show" of themselves...It could have been relied on.

And even those should mainly be ghost flights although I suspect many passengers will be ignoring the lockdown.

Don`t Border Force & even Security have an over arching view & control?