It is indeed hard to feel any positive vibes coming out of the airport. The future feels as bleak as it did 7 weeks ago, maybe more so. With TUI announcing 8,000 worldwide job cuts and with its UK HQ just a mile away and a hangar at the airport I cannot see how Luton will not feel even more pain in the coming weeks.

The airport has cut costs and has even put signs up that if anyone ventures onto the multi-storey car park roofs they will need a torch at night as the lighting has been switched off. This from an airport that was using electrical outside heaters a couple of months ago to keep the smokers toasty except they never made a difference.

Despite this, the terminal is open 24/7 with I think 4 flights a week arriving in the early hours. I would have thought Wizz could have changed flight times to a more passenger and airport friendly schedule when for instance their Tel Aviv flights are the only use of that aircraft for that day.

No car park busses either, which is another reason why I won’t be back for a while, as it makes a reasonable walk from home a very long walk. Even when the buses start again I would be a reluctant passenger and this is the airports dilemma. Everyday the public will be doing their own risk assessments and flying will be seen as a risky business for a long time to come for many.

April Stats
 

Total passengers 14,017, down 99.1%
Total capacity 37,928, down 97.9%
Load factor 37%
Year to date 2,933,278, down 43.7%
Rolling 12 month total 15,725,730, down 8.2%

Your rolling 12m figure is 10m pax out :-)

latest drone footage of DART

Thanks LTNman for the construction update
This video was obviously taken a few weeks ago as your photos supersede some sections

Comparing the artist impression with the construction update, as previously suspected, there appears to be a major part of the station building missing. Drawings show 2 phases but whether that is for a station capacity upgrade for a second terminal or is needed for the current construction so the bridge sections could be built on site and lowered into position remains to be seen.

It has already been noted in previous construction updates that the existing building has no holes between the floors for lifts, stairs and escalators so I suspect there is another section of building due to be built this year.

Another question is what are those two steel towers for? Are they being built there to be moved later? Answers on a post card to ...
https://i.imgur.com/7ySoY2v.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/GvtoGUc.jpg

Todays Wizzair flight to TFS was cancelled last night after the Spanish Authorities designated Gran Canaria as the sole airport in the Canaries allowed to accept international arrivals. Subsequently TFS complained, the authorities back tracked on their decision and will now allow TFS to accept international arrivals. Too late to reinstate the flight. P*ss up and Brewery spring to mind ......

Might be old news but Blue Air is now only bookable to Romania, which seems to restart July 1st.

https://www.london-luton.co.uk/getme...ueair-new.aspx 0B9191Bucharest-Otopeni 12:20 Estimated 12:05 Due today

I saw that but I think it might be a charter as there is no return leg. The website says they are not operating flights until July but they will do charter flights.

Departs back to Bucharest at 13:05 as BLA9190

I think it must be a charter - this is not one of the normal flight numbers used.

I didn't realise the local council were reliant on the airport for their day to day funding...

Just watching Look East and mentioned how Luton Borough Council were expecting a £16 million payment dividend, which the airport has now withdrawn from paying due to the current situation. The council are now threatening cutbacks to local services.

I can now see why the airport rubs up neighbouring councils the wrong way, by not being a beneficiary of this money too!

It is alot more complicated than that! Who owns the airport?!

Remember who owns 2/3 of MAG as well, that will be a loss of £100m for Manchester Council's ?

Then you got West Midlands Councils owning 49% of Brum, that will be a loss in dividends for them as well.

The missing dividend is only part of the story, the other bit they are keeping quiet about.

The council own 100% of the airport via its airport company London Luton Airport Ltd. LLAL fund many of its projects by taking out loans from the council. As the council has no money they then borrow the money themselves. The airport dividend to the council would be substantially more if it wasn’t for the interest payments on around £330m of debt. Not only can LLAL not pay a dividend they don’t seem to be able to pay the interest payments either meaning the council will now have to pick up the bill.

The Dart is a classic example of how the council spends money. As the airport reached capacity without the Dart it is only needed for an expanded airport. Expansion is not guaranteed so the Dart has to be seen as a project just for the existing terminal. The airport operator LLAOL has refused to put money into the project while the airport passengers are not paying for it either in the form of a levy. This leaves the council taxpayer to fund it except they will not benefit from the Dart.

There is also the Terminal 2 access road. This is costed at £124 million and the council want to build it before they know the outcome of any government decision on airport expansion. This time the council will fund it themselves rather than lend the money to LLAL as it is more tax efficient.

The pie chart for council income shows the airport dividend to be 10% of the councils budget but they are now claiming lost revenue from the airport is actually costing the council 38% of its budget.

While the airport has indeed been a good income stream for the council the council could now end up in special measures because of the airport as it hadn’t diversified its commercial activities.

Air Albania's A319 was in again yesterday; it seems to have been a regular visitor over recent weeks. Presumably it's carrying freight?

It has been reported here before that the flights carry deported Albanian criminals home and used to fly into Stansted.

How do you know they are criminals?

I don't but that what was reported by a Stansted guy on here when it was mentioned before.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...herts-52726983

Stand by for a shafting all those living in Luton!

When does T2 open..........

https://www.luton.gov.uk/Council_gov...ts-2018-19.pdf

Page 38 states the council has group reserves of over a billion pounds and single reserves of over £600m. The problem for the council taxpayer is that the council does not want to touch their reserves. Also they are predicting a year of no passengers so they can screw the general taxpayer for even more money.