You’re right!

Just Antalaya, Bodrum and Dalaman remain.

With Tui basing just two aircraft next year it would appear Luton’s charter days are becoming a thing of the past.

Thomas Cook
 

Just Antalya and Dalaman that remain, full schedule as follows...

Monday
MT173 Dep. DLM 14:00 Arr. LTN 16:20
MT172 Dep. LTN 17:35 Arr. DLM 23:45

Tuesday
MT175 Dep. AYT 14:10 Arr. LTN 16:40
MT174 Dep. LTN 17:55 Arr. AYT 00:10+1

Thursday
MT177 Dep. DLM 14:45 Arr. LTN 17:05
MT176 Dep. LTN 18:20 Arr. DLM 00:30+1

Friday
MT179 Dep. AYT 14:50 Arr. LTN 17:25
MT178 Dep. LTN 18:40 Arr. AYT 00:55+1

There is also a Bodrum:

MT178 LTN 0730 BJV 1335 Sun
MT179 BJV 0115 LTN 0330 Mon

TCX 2018
 

Not surprised in the slightest, if the Summer 2018 schedule is reduced...

Summer 2017, was meant to have 5-6 "W" flights, and once the final schedule was released, all we ended up with was one weekly Palma service.

I was also surprised to see the new LTN base for 2018 was so heavily focused on Turkey and Tunisia.
With hardly any Greek or Spanish destinations other than I think a weekly Corfu and Palma service.

If the all the new Sun Express routes to Turkey come to fruition, I wonder if Thomas Cook, might buy some seats on these fligts? I think Thomas Cook and Sun Express are quite closely linked in Germany.

It begs the question why has Luton become so unpopular with the IT industry when an airport like Gatwick is also swamped with low cost carriers? Is demand really not there or are they forcing passengers to use the airports that IT want to use?

Well what do you think ? Nobody north of the Thames uses IT !!!!!!

I think it was a bit late in the day for TCX to add so many routes from LTN many people would have booked for summer 18 long before the announcement of so many routes.

Not really, I'd argue only a minority of people will have booked up their Summer'18 holidays by October. Thomas Cook were pretty swift off the mark after Monarch ceased trading early October. Jet2 didn't release their STN routes until September 21st last year, for a March 2017 launch, and there were certainly no such issues there.

I think the difference with Jet2 at Stansted was there were 1000’s of people just waiting for an alternative to Ryanair I also think Luton passengers who used Monarch in the past may had booked in advance for summer 2018 with Monarch and lost money and holidays or thought we best look for other alternatives as Monarch had gone so could have booked At other airports anyway my point is maybe next year you will see a well planned operation from Thomas Cook at Luton my thoughts are summer 2018 was a knee jerk reaction and wasn’t well planned but I think they could have a bigger presence at Luton in the future

Maybe they were relying on getting some of the slots from Monarch, which did not come available in the end.

Maybe a good thing?
 

ericlday, The following is based on my personal opinion and research:

For 2016 financial tax year (approximate figures)

Profits per passenger-

LTN £3.12

LGW £2.25

Had Ltn have had LGW identical passenger levels for the 2016 financial year, then Luton could have quite easily, have generated £134.5 million profit as opposed to LGW £97.4 million, which begs the question: LGW must be selling itself short and thus is generous with incentives that draws in many services of which includes I.T charter flights.

The above scenario might explain why during the early 1970's Luton was the most profitable airport in the UK.

To suggest that 'no one north of the Thames uses it' is not factual as train after train that arrive from the north London terminus (London St Pancras) carries millions of passengers heading to London Luton Airport.

Thanks Lee for your views

I am guessing that once Wizz took the Monarch slots, Thomas Cook were left with only off-peak slot availability. Remember, they are taking 4 ex Monarch A321s.

As I understand it Wizz have not taken all the Monarch slots but probably the most attractive and as you say Buster left Thomas Cook or whoever with the remainder, but there again TC must have had the opportunity to bid for the 'star' slots but chose not to or were outbid.

Thomas Cook weren't using Monarch slots. Using a mix of TUI left over slots as they drop down an aircraft next year.

That explains why Biz jets are once again parking on the South Stands. Also stand 10 is being used but I assume this is for Signature.

Monarch's demise has brought benefits for some at the airport.

AirlineRoute reports that Wizz will replace A320 with A321 on LTN-Kaunas (daily) and Riga (twice daily) from 25 March 18.

Where would a long term solution be?

There isn’t one as far as I know and it is set to get worse. The old Ocean Sky ramps that became part of Signature Terminal 2 are meant to become airliner stands in 2020 after modifications.

There is a large pocket of land to the south of the runway that is almost the size of the main apron that is still part of Luton that could be used just for biz jet storage. The problem is getting aircraft towed there which would mean crossing the runway but Luton’s runway is not always busy.

In the vision 2020-2050 document that looks at expanding the airport there is no mention of FBO’s

With regards to Gulfstream I did hear that they might keep a facility open at Luton once the bulk has moved out.