Pabely -

Frankly that looks like LTN is already!

From AirlineRoute:

Wizz Air yesterday (20DEC17) announced further network expansion at London Luton, with additional launch of 3 routes during summer 2018 season.

London Luton – Athens eff 29APR18 1 daily
London Luton – Bari eff 25MAR18 2 weekly (4 weekly from 20APR18)
London Luton – Reykjavik Keflavik eff 29APR18 4 weekly (1 daily from 17SEP18)

The additional 3 routes is in addition the following 5 announced earlier this year.
London Luton – Bratislava eff 20JUN18 1 daily
London Luton – Larnaca eff 30MAY18 1 daily
London Luton – Lviv eff 18SEP18 3 weekly
London Luton – Tallinn eff 17SEP18 4 weekly
London Luton – Tirana eff 31MAY18 3 weekly

At London Luton, Wizz Air’s network will grow to 44 routes with these new additions.

So the grand total of based aircraft of all airlines for next summer is?

Great to see Athens back

Update provided to our work today by LLA:

Here's a brief update on construction work at LTN over the next few months.

From 1 January the Short Stay Car Park will close to enable building work to start on a new 1,900 space multi-storey car park and new drop off zone (DOZ). The existing multi-storey car park will be used instead.

Fitting out of shops in airside departures is now underway and they will start to open early Feb.

The shared landside arrivals and departures area will be available from March with new shops including a larger M&S and Pret A Manger.

The new DOZ opens at the end of May and construction of the Mass Passenger Transit (MPT) station begins on the old DOZ site. This monorail up the hill from Parkway station is targeted to be completed in 2021.

From early June buses and Hanger 89 visitors will not have to go through the barriers... Barriers will only be on the exit of each of the DOZ and multi-storey car park.

Strange as this report, which has only just been published states that work on the multi-storey won’t start until June 2018.

The LLA report of the opening date of the Drop Off Zone for May is also strange as it is meant to open on the ground floor of the new multi-storey so either it will open in a building that will be still under construction and only a shell or they are going back to an old plan to open a temporary drop off zone, which would account for the whole short term car park closing.


With both the exiting multi-storey and short term car park full last summer I wonder where all the cars will go from the short term car park next year? Certainly from January 1st there does not seem to be an option to pre-book the short term car park.

Both on the old and new plans for the Drop Off Zones cars from H89 and buses still had to go through barriers to get out of the CTA that were separate from the Drop Off Barriers.

With the construction village gone after the opening of the taxiway extension I was expecting it to just relocate for the other taxiway projects but it does not appear to have been relocated.

.I am thinking that when it first opens it will be via the temporary entrance as the front of the terminal is just a pile of rubble. Stairs and ramps need to go in as the building is higher than the bus station together with retaining walls and that new canopy still seems to be a long way off.

Total of based A/C?
 

38 (I am including 2 A/C that I think U2 will add next year)

Let the price war begin...
 

easyJet have started the price war to Iceland!

June and May plenty of fares for around £33 LTN-KEF!

And that's the return fare, not one way!

Wizzair are being more realistic and pricing the fares at around £50-60 return.

Holiday Pirates Price Comparison

It is not far off that price from LGW either by EZY, that might be a killer for Icelandair and WOW. Wizzair are between those two on price.

Icelandic & Wow have fish to fry other than point to point at LGW.

Icelandic have already pulled Birmingham.

The thinking is ICE pulled BHX because of PRI entering the same market which is not necessarily point to point.

Ltn has declared 39 stands available this summer excluding 2 reserve stands.

Lee -

Care to elaborate?

Wizz
 

Looks like Wizz are also cutting a couple of their less profitable routes from Luton, flights to Brno, Czech Republic end on 8th January and flights to Szczecin, Poland end on 12th January.

Only 2 departures and 1 arrival on Christmas Day, which is the smallest amount of activity through the terminal for years. From memory Monarch was the biggest player on Christmas Day.

In those lighter years in the past the airport had very restricted ATC hours but this year the airport seems to be fully open no doubt for biz jet movements despite the airports having all its airliner movements within a 1 hour and 5 minute period.

It comes with being almost entirely an LCC operation. By noon tomorrow EDI will have had 7 arrivals and 8 departures, the extra being a TUI.

Firstly, are the new WOW routes point to point (Athens etc.) or are they all doglegged through their main hub?

Secondly, with the next round of works, remind me not to use LTN in 2018 if I can possibly help it ...

Two Vueling arrivals/departures in the evening to Amsterdam and Barcelona, in addition to the El Al and TUI, so a total of 4.

There are positives and negatives to the passenger experience for 2018.

By the time the summer arrives the new terminal entrances, lobby, ground floor retail units, new pier and departure lounge will all be complete and fully open.

On the negative side security will still be operating at 2017 capacity while the old retail units are being gutted and the arrivals experience will also be not great as work continues on the new baggage belts, baggage reclaim area and immigration hall.

The airport claim a new drop off zone will be open for summer which at the umpteenth attempt should ease the congestion but will it?

The big issue for 2018 will be the loss of the short term car park and reduction of the mid term car park. I can only assume that the whole of the multi-storey will become a short term car park rather than the top two floors being reserved for priority parking.

Last summer cars in the short term car park were having to park on pavements due to a lack of bays. All those cars are unlikely to squeeze into the top 2 floors of the multi-storey. Also with only 2 exit barriers it will also be a chore getting out.

Then there is the digging up of part of the dual carriageway for the cut and cover tunnel and the digging up of part of the ring road for the new pedestrian tunnel. No gain without pain but the pain is lasting years with years still to go. Once completely finished Luton will be unrecognisable from even today.

Didn’t think that London City was a low cost airport as they don’t appear to have any flights today:ugh:

I did not know WOW operated out of Luton Paxboy, do you know something others don't know please tell us.

What price Maintenance?
 

I have been hearing the odd rumour that may be interesting if true.
It appears that the council/ airport operator could be investigating moving the airport perimeter once the road to Century park is built.
Earlier this year we know that the council held talks with those concerned about CPO's being placed on buildings for the new road, could they also have sounded out the likes of TUI and MAEL about removing the hangars.
I am not sure what the future of Percival Way will be , but with the demise of Monarch, their HQ , training building, Halcyon House, which I believe is empty except for the Police, there appears very little to prevent them from flattening this land and using it for airport use.
The big question is does anyone see this as feasible , does the Airport see Maintenance as holding back development, does it provide much in the way of income , are the Hangars leased or bought.
Would the airport really gain much in the way of stands etc.
I am just throwing this out there for any comments, esp LTNman as your much nearer to the action.

LCY opening hours are a special case not relevant to a comparison with a normal airport.

Lots of rumours plus a few facts that I will concentrate on.

Maybe just under 2 years ago the airport held a meeting with TUI about moving the TUI hangar. No idea of the outcome or even if there was a followup meeting. At that time a plan was seen of a terminal on Wigmore Park with around 40 stands.

Since then the airport submitted two proposals for Wigmore Park and the field next door. The second plan is the revised proposal which involves a scaled back version of the first plan leaving the field next door clear of any development, which will allow the proposed new replacement Wigmore Park to be further way from the 26 end of the runway.

A planning application is about to go in for a new dual carriageway to serve the Century Park business park BUT Wigmore Park is also under consideration for expanding the airport so the business park might never be built, which means the dual carriageway could be for a second terminal.

Now if all the land from the dual carriageway to the hangar line was cleared including the hangar line would there be enough room for a terminal there plus new stands? Probably but not 40 stands which would be required to double the airport.

If the terminal went in Wigmore Park then that would also alter the airports airside and landside boundary. Other locations could be to build a second terminal in the long term car park but again not with 40 stands.

Also heard from a guy in the know and I mean in the know that the airport would like to build a second terminal in the existing CTA.

So the conclusion is with 4 possibilities I have no idea so take your pick.

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

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

Luton Wizzair
 

Wizzair having plan to fly from London Luton do North America.

What is the source? The rumour has gone around a few times before only for it to be denied.

What is certainly true is that Wizz Air need to find something to do with the 280 planes they have on order.

Are you asking the question or telling us something?

Obviously you meant WIZZ.

He is actually replying to the previous post about EDI and the Wow hub in Iceland.

Oh right ok thanks for that it wasn't clear to me at first.

Another heavy snow forecast from 5am tomorrow. Temperatures seem marginal so maybe the forecast is pessimistic.

Don't get up to the airport much these days but notice two new looking masts on or close to old radar installation - anyone know what they are?

Here is the snow warning
Valid:270300 to 270600 UTC Text:MODERATE SNOWFALL IS FORECAST, WITH ACCUMULATIONS OF 0-1CM. SNOW TYPE WET. VISIBILITY IS NOT EXPECTED TO FALL BELOW 600M IN THE SNOWFALL, WITH A MINIMUM VISIBILITY OF 1000M. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE GREATER THAN 15KT WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF DRIFTING.
Overnight temp 2degC and 3degC tomorrow but with a wind tomorrow of 22kt gusting 35kt it is going to feel pretty raw.

Glad my phone doesn't ring these days :)

Looking at the synoptic, it could possibly snow until midday, certainly beyond the 06:00 expiry of this warning.

0-1C CM, let's see

The forecast was 2-5cm on the 10/12 and we had 16CM. Snow is the hardest weather to forecast as it changes every minute. Hopefully LTN will deal with it better this time around as less is forecasted.

Blimey, would you believe it! Snow Warning now valid to 12:00. The hardest prediction is the temperature tomorrow and that is critical, as it could fall as rain.

So with the runway wet,wet,wet why is every departure requesting the runway full length with a backtrack. Even the Belfast flight requested the full length.

Now many holding for Luton with U2182 on its way into STN