How busy are those Wizz flights ?

Yes, I know yield matters too, but LF is easy to estimate by observation

Most of Easyjet is still parked up but I have no doubt a blacker picture is being painted at Luton by the council than will be the case over a 12 month period, as it seeks a government bailout. While the Council is making £50m of savings with every part of the council untouched they still intend to spend another £60m on the airport this year although they have little choice. As they say, they are a special case with an airport to subsidise.

How soon will it be that Luton becomes another lockdown town.......

Well it is on the cards as Luton is in the top 20. If it did happen it would mean the airport would be under pressure from some to close as it is inside the towns boundary and has a LU2 post code which is the same as all the local housing. The advice for Leicester is that people don't go there unless it is essential. I can't see a holiday via Luton in Spain as essential.

In Serbia the locals are rioting as cases of Coronavirus grow. I wonder how many got it from the UK.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...protested.html

Other parts of the poorer Eastern EU nations are suffering the same fate with migrants and workers bring the infections back

Serbia outbreak
 

Serbia is a hot spot for Chinese visitors so to ‘suggest’ the UK and with emphasis on LTN might be responsible for its outbreak; just might be unfounded!

Ltn is just one route of many connecting Serbia with Europe although I think European migrant hostels are the source of many of their problems.

During these quiet times there has been some interesting traffic pass overhead. Apart microlights a Spitfire passed over a few days ago and a DC3 plus a selection of light aircraft.

I understand that the Spitfire was the one with NHS titles, that flew over various airfields on the 72nd anniversary of the NHS.

The first Dan Air Comet started ops just ahead of the first of the 1-11's. G-APDO 29th March 1969; first 1-11 was G-AXCP which arrived 3rd April 1969. 1970 actually had very few Comet flights in the summer but they were back in 1971.

Airline counts (regular for peak summer), excluding cargo operators:-
1967 - 7
1968 - 6
1969 - 8
1970 - 8
1971 - 12

Looks like the Parkway experiance will get worse before it gets better https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/tr...tation-2908646

Quite often the escalators within the station building don't work but I have always found the staircases to be in working order.

The lifts in the new multi story didn't work for months as they were not finished. Initially the airport employed people to carry passengers suitcases but that idea was soon abandoned.

Same for Harlow & Bishops Stortford then as STN now exceeds LTN in pax movements once again?

Wizzair starting Bacau daily from 29th Oct 20. That will worry Blue Air.

Is that the last route they already don't compete with from Luton to Romania?

Bacau is Wizz's 11th destination in Romania from Luton. Blue Air now fly LTN-Bucharest, Iasi & Bacau.

Bacau:
Blue Air fly to
Bergamo, Brussels-BRU, Dublin, Luton, Rome-FCO and Turin

Wizz will fly to
Bergamo, Brussels-CRL, Luton, Rome-FCO, Turin and 7 other destinations

Bacau has no airlines apart from Blue Air and Wizzair

Iasi:
Blue Air fly to
Barcelona, Beauvais, Brussels-BRU, Bucharest, Cologne, Luton, Munich, Rome-FCO, Verona and Turin

Wizz fly (or will fly shortly) to
Barcelona, Beauvais, Brussels-CRL, Dortmund (near Cologne), Luton, Rome-FCO, Verona, Turin and 10 other destinations
Tarom fly to Bucharest

Combined with Blue Air this week seeking court protection from creditors, I think Blue Air have a lot of big problems to resolve

63 Biz movements at Luton yesterday, long weekends in Med via travel corridors kicking in?

Harrods reopened at the beginning of May. I don’t think Signature ever closed. Much better to take a business jet than sit next to a potentially disease ridden individual from Harlow in Essex who doesn’t intend to cancel a week in Benidorm when him and his mates are meant to be in self isolation.

A little more Fuel for you LTNman https://www.transportxtra.com/public...cial-troubles/

The story is an indictment of the risks the council has taken and how it has all gone wrong. London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL) was set up in 1998 as the owner of the airport and the collector of airport income. Risks and investments were carried by the airport operating company (LLAOL) for a 33 year concession agreement, which ends in 2031, including passenger targets to reach and investment in airport expansion to 18m passengers.

Now the roles have been reversed. LLAL, which was meant to be a zero risk company with no debt and no staff, has borrowed hundreds of millions of pounds from the Council who borrowed the money themselves for pre expansion work while the airport operator won't put in a penny including chipping into the Dart project. The bottom line is that LLAL would be bankrupt, as it can't afford its interest payments to the Council and the extra money required for the Dart, without a Council bailout. The bailout this years is £60m and next years is forecast to be £23m.

It doesn't end there as the existing bus service between the airport and the terminal is part of the Thameslink franchise so is at no cost to LLAOL, LLAL or the Council. This is why it has run everyday despite the airport having no passengers on some days. From next year LLAL will be paying the shortfall in income from the Dart, as there will be a contract in place with the company providing the trains for maintenance and staff costs worth millions plus a £243m bill to pay off in easy instalments. No wonder the airport operator did not want to know.

So LLAOL gets a bailout from the council to pay the interest on the money it has borrowed from the council? :eek: