The strange structures in the foreground are the footbridge that will cross the Thameslink platforms. Once erected the foreground will be free for the DART module to proceed towards the Hilton Hotel.

Thanks. I would never have thought of that answer.

The wibbly wobbly bus shelter must be the most useless construction to date. :rolleyes:
It's blatantly too narrow to protect anybody from the horizontal wind and rain which​​​​ prevails the site for 9 months of the year.
Style over practicality. And no doubt will end up in a skip in a year or so once the DART enters service. :bored:​​​​​​

Ironic really , given the rest was practicality over style and that also got derogatory remarks.

Interesting video for some of just how busy Luton was on Christmas Day during the morning peak as someone is dropped off in the under cover drop off zone and ends up catching the Level flight to Amsterdam. The filming continued through the security area where filming is meant to be banned.

We do people film like that? Are they hoping to catch a problem and sell the footage? When we went through LHR T3 in September, there was a man recording his bags being cling wrapped ... I must be old.

Airport access road from North & East
 

So what will happen to the £4M Vauxhall Way project?
Part of the development will be paid for by the £1.2m grant from South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), which has to be used by March 31st

The £4 million cost is just the tiny bit by Hitchin Road. For the total cost you can add a zero to that figure as half a hillside has to be dug out opposite IBC. I had the figures somewhere so I will try and dig them out. The council seems to be on a mission to cut down every tree in the east of Luton. Even the Cemetery had all its trees cut down and don't get me started on our Park.

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

The council were clever. They put out barriers and dug a small hole before the locals kicked off because they were not consulted which stopped the work in its tracks. I am guessing that because the work was started any funding will remain in place although no one else has come up with that theory. Can't think of any other reason why the Council would start a major road project and then not tell anyone.

Oh and those roadworks in the photo was the power cables going in for the Dart. They must have run a mile of cable to a substation.

Might be old news and I have missed it but Wizz now carries more passengers out of Luton than Easyjet so have become the airports biggest carrier.

Also over 17,000 passengers used the airport on Christmas Day

From Airline Route:
Wizzair starting LTN-VIE once daily from 1st July with A321 in competition with EZY.
W62879 VIE1715 – 1840LTN 321 D
W62880 LTN1920 – 2240VIE 321 D

Edited to add: it looks as though EZY will not serve LTN-VIE after March 2020

I might be wrong but I recall that W6's VIE-LTN being announced last November.

Yes it was, EZY currently 4 weekly, can't remember if it was daily in S19 but it is an increase in capacity on route.

Terminal
 

I don’t often post on here but I do have my concerns. Being someone who currently works within the airport terminal, I notice a number of jobs still have not been complete interior wise. Also when there is a massive influx of passengers passing through, the main departure lounge area gets rather crowded. Also in terms of aesthetics, it looks very rushed and tacky inside the terminal.

I know that the new master plan states the current terminal being expanded again, and a new two story section will be built onto the back of the existing departure lounge. Could someone please explain what they actually plan or any rumours about the current terminal building and improvements still to be made. Personally I would love to see ceiling for one downstairs and improved flooring but they are minor.

Where do I start. Maybe I should cover this in a construction update. Anyone notice the fire exit that has been closed off due to building work by the terminal entrance? On the subject of evacuation safety, if there was a panicked evacuation in the summer morning peak passengers could be penned in by the barriers to keep passengers out of the bus station bays and the balcony barriers that fronts the bus station. Just think of the Hillsborough disaster. The airport plans to reduce the pavement further by building a small angled extension at the front by the underground service road.

At the back of the terminal by what was the temporary outsize baggage area, that before that was check-in desks 200-210 or some such numbering, has been closed off, as has most of that end of the terminal apart from a route to the baggage storage room and the new outsize baggage area. No idea what is going on but there is no hurry and construction seems to be taking place by one man and his dog. I am not expecting much but after the customer agents desks were moved this has freed up space so maybe those check-in desks are coming back with a deeper passenger queuing area as it was very compact before and was hardly ever used. Don't know of any planned terminal extension at this end of the building as there is nowhere for it to go.

On the roof of the old 1960's terminal that can just be seen, a new barbed wire topped 4 or 5 metre fence is being erected. Why it needs a barbed wire fence to replace low safety barriers when it is on a roof is anyone guess but would maybe indicate the roof is becoming airside for some reason, which seems strange, as why make access for contractors so difficult as they would then need airside access.

Just in front of that by the terminals main entrance the whole area has been concreted over and this is now the bin storage area for the terminal. I don't know if this is an additional area to the one in the underground service area but it is partially hidden by the builders temporary fence as they are still on site. Not a great advert for the airport to see a mass of large dustbins and cardboard compactor machines by the side of a passenger entrance.

As for the ceiling on the ground floor, enough said. It was never finished apart from the bit above where the Princess Royal stood last year as I suspect the council was ashamed of the exposed pipework.

As for the toilets aswell. They are diabolical; run down and tatty compared to other airports which I have used. It’s surprising aswell to hear people complain about the lack of jet bridges especially when it’s raining or windy. But then again it is a low budget airport and we can only wait and see what they do which I doubt will be much.

Yes I agree, it is always a real eye opener watching the latest batch of Wizz and Blue Air passengers arrive and depart. I often point out the smoking areas to the EU masses that smoke by the two entrance but 90% just carry on and don’t give a sh** or they don’t speak a word of a English so give the impression that they don’t give a sh**

On 20 May an era will come to an end when the airport will close from 0000 to 0500 so that the runway can be redesignated presumably to 25-07.

Is that the EU masses arriving from the newer Wizzair routes to Porto, Tenerife, Oslo and soon Vienna?

Closer to my old days using 24/06 !

No not there, further east I would say but I can’t say where as the R card will be waved.