I was told it will be as it is now which is a bit disappointing. So either buy a through ticket or pay at the Dart.

Very hard to work out the length of time to pay the debt off

The target is 34% of all passengers will arrive by rail. 18,000,000 divided by 2 is 9,000,000 return journeys through the airport. This would mean 3,060,000 return journeys via Dart per year. Existing fare is £3.80 return. £225,000,000 / £3.80 = 59,210,526 return trips needed before interest and running costs. Divided that by 3,060,000 passengers per year = nearly 20 years.

BUT there are interest payments on the loans and running costs for the dart which runs into a few million for the first 5 years. Doppelmayr Cable Car is building the automated people mover for the project. It is also responsible for operating the system for five years with an option to extend this term by five more years. I think in reality 20 years could well end up being 40 years, which is why the airport operator said no to funding it and that is assuming the airport maintains 18m which it might not. Any extension to T2 would be a further cost.

The idea is that the next franchise holder will pay off the debt and will adjust their payments to LLAL accordantly so clearing the LLAL debt

TV crew was at Luton today probably unofficially as they stayed out of the terminal and took this using a zoom lens of the pier. Despite all the BS from the airport about social distancing this was the reality at Luton today.

https://i.imgur.com/WocY1u1.jpg

I read that according to Wizz, many passengers have to travel for work. A crafty worded statement that is massively ambiguous. Luton is certainly on a 'drive to the bottom', in fact, it is a lap ahead of any competition.

Has to be said that there does seem to be a whiff of xenophobia and snobbery from some of the posts on this forum and in the local media. Particularly from the good folks of Hertfordshire who couldn't wait to go running to JVS on Three Counties who's anti-airport bias is blatantly clear. Since when did anti-noise/anti-expansion campaigners become experts on the spread of infectious disease and current government rules?

Bottom line is they don't like where the passengers are coming from/going to.

Simon Calder, The Independent talking on ITV tonight: "I don't think Wizz Air is being remotely irresponsible. These are not in any sense holiday flights. People can't use them for business trips but they are going to provide a life-line for repatriation for essential workers for people with desperate family needs".
​​​​​​​

Due tomorrow

ZB3009 Tirana14:00

ZB.....Monarch revisited...Hmmmmm !!!

One also came in about a week ago

Simon Calder is just expressing his own personal opinion like everyone else and has come across in other interviews as someone who has not taken this threat seriously as it has curbed his free travel jaunts.

The head of Heathrow has been open and has said social distancing is impossible while Luton is in denial as yesterday’s photo posted here has shown.

Social-distancing at airports is 'impossible', says Heathrow boss https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52504183

As a nation we either want to get rid of this virus or we don’t and companies like Wizz are not helping as it just prolongs the pain.

I still find it amazing that it is other countries that make foreign travel difficult while the UK still has open access.

Wizz Air not exclusive to Luton at the moment Budapest - Birmingham this morning.

They will fly to anywhere they can. The next question is what will Easyjet do as they are meant to be starting again soon. Difficult choices but I suspect like most companies they will put their own interests first which is understandable.

Sorry LTNman I don't follow what are Luton supposed to be in denial about?

BTW Simon Calder is known as the "man who pays his way" and doesn't except junkets.

Be interesting if similar criteria is imposed on Easyjet - should they receive a gov dot uk bale out - as been imposed on Air France w.r.t. short domestic flights:

https://www.railjournal.com/passenge...ail-in-france/

That would kill LTN to both GLA and EDI if the French 1 h 15 min flight became a UK 1 h 30 m.

PS
I put this under Luton thread rather than Easyjet thread for no particular reason than I use (well used!) LTN GLA once a year at least.

--
Nick

The French government is very interventionist, and in France the state plays a much greater part than in the UK.

Maybe, but gov.uk is going to having a bigger say so in all matters when baling any concerns out - things have significantly changed in every respect, and any money will come with strings.

They said they could implement social distancing when clearly they cannot and this on a day with only 4 flights.

Wizz got a £300m 0.6% interest UK government loan and they are a Hungarian airline while Virgin Atlantic seems to be getting nothing. Didn’t read about any conditions regarding the Wizz loan.

The following is in the media in Tenerife, anybody confirm or deny this ?
UK’s DoT has confirmed after consultation with Wizz Air management that the airline has cancelled Tenerife flights until June at the earliest.

Where did they say LTNman ?

Wizz do not operate internal domestic UK flights of the short duration referred to.

That just might be the reason why such conditions was not put in ????

In any case, loans are different to baleouts.

Virgin operate neither UK short hauls nor operate from LTN. So irrelevant x2.