Hi, I'm flying from Luton at the end of October the flight departs at 06:00 would it be wise to buy fast track or just a waste of money, is it likely to be very busy?

Personally I would hang onto the money. November is the quietest month of the year and the end of October is close to November. You might have to factor in half term though if it clashes although I would still not bother. I guess it all depends if you want to pass through security at the last minute or give yourself plenty of time.

Thanks LTNman, I will have plenty of time as I should arrive around 01:30, it will be half term but being so early I hope to avoid any lengthy queues, thank again.

While LTN is far from perfect, I've had no issues with security this year, and used on numerous occasions.

Never taken more than 20 minutes, even in the morning rush. Im sure in some cases only 10 mins.

Yes the hall is a little crowded and chaotic, but they seem to run a tight ship, and keep everything flowing.

Only thing I am not keen on is sometimes you loose sight of your pocessions if they go through the X-Ray machine before you or if you get held up by the staff if they want to do any other checks on you.
Your bags and belongings can be sat at the bottom waiting to be retrieved for anyone to help themselves to. But this is an issue that could happen at any airport.

It won't be that bad. It might be the case that the extension to Security will be completed by that time anyway. Landside all the shops and eateries are open 24 hour. Airside they seem to open around 4:30.

Strange story as I always thought that a ticket had to be bought from a conductor/ ticket machine/ kiosk before boarding. We will wait and see to see how the DART ticketing will work but I suspect for many passengers it will not be seamless as they continue to buy tickets to Luton Airport Parkway and not Luton Airport.

It might be unreal for you but when you're travelling from the North by train you don't have many options. It's fine if you live closer or not using public transport.

For anyone interested Spain football team arriving today on AEA977 B737-800 not on airport website at present time.

https://www.insidermedia.com/insider...rport-contract.

The story is inaccurate as the last multistory and the new one is being built by The Buckingham Group with the named company installing the just the composite steel floor that is then poured with concrete.

The new car park should be substantially physically bigger than the existing one as the whole of the ground floor is taken up by a new drop off area while the new car park will have around 400 spaces more despite the loss of the floor.

Remarkable state of affairs. Noted that the estimated times on the boards do not reflect this information.

Also on the NOTAMSo what is that all about?

upcoming drone operations.
 

Give that man a gold medal for coming to that conclusion, thats exactly what the drone is for.

A press release just issued show that 1.7 million passengers (actual number not given) used the airport in August up 3.1 per cent on August 2017.

August figures
 

Year end
 

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

The airport has published a publicity photo of their new canopy for bus passengers. In the last of the planning application amendments where they seek retrospective planning permission the justification given for not building the full canopy is that it was too high to offer weather protection to passengers. The fact that the dirty white awnings that cover just the entrances only now offers protection to smokers and then it ends only to start again once passengers reach the walkway to the multistory or the bus canopy has been conveniently ignored.

I had great expectations in 2012 when plans were first announced that Luton would end up with a terminal it could be proud of but the airport has relied solely on the shops, bars and food outlets to add a bit of class. The contribution by the airport has been truly shocking with its choice of fixtures and fittings to keep costs to a minimum while offering nothing worthwhile for the customer experience.

Anyone familiar with the terminal on a daily basis will know the airport has a very long history of never fixing broken floor tiles. Even on brand new sections floor layers never go back to fix their work and this is also happening now on the new terminal infill which only opened in April. The result of this is that the flooring looks truly awful and is a patchwork of grey.

The low ceilings with all the services exposed like ducting, pipes and electrical services prominently stand out in silver as they were never spayed black to hide them. With random amounts of large gap planking fitted to the ceilings, which often lay in line with the direction passengers walk hide little and seems to have been fitted with little thought.

Sorry just my rant for the day .

I think you might be feeling a tad too optimistic, I think the current growth of around 3% is likely to be more realistic for the for seeable future and this could slow slight more to 2%.

Ryanair swooped in a few weeks ago and swallowed up the final two overnight parking spaces on the apron if you're to believe what people are saying on here.
(Which I don't doubt, as they are more in the know than me.)

The airport is getting back to how it was before the expansion, and growth will soon be limited to visiting airlines to the airport, who don't want to base aircraft here overnight, as there is no room left at the inn and all rooms are booked!

Are the south stands adacent to the taxiway now fully occupied overnight? As when I fly through during the day, they are usually empty.

The airport likes to be resourceful, maybe they could start using the engine testing bay to park 2-3 aircraft and potentially open this area up and expand. :}

Being serious, I would suspect now the large capital investment/expansion is coming to the final stages, the exisiting airport operator will be keen to cream as much as they can off of the newly upgrded facilities before having to pump more money in for future expansion. They currently say the terminal has been expanded to handle up to 18 million passengers a years, but once that figure is exceeded they will probably say the terminal is designed to handle 20-22million, and there is no need to expand further!

They did something similar when the terminal before the current expansion was designed to handle 10 million, but in the latter years, quotes came out saying it was designed to handle 12 million.

I think we'll also see potential disagreements between the council and the operator AENA in the not too distant future. As the council are making it very clear they want press ahead and expand the airport further, but I would guess AENA will be happy with the current expansion and want to get some money back from this before expanding further. Maybe they could be persauded if they get a further extension to operating the airport and some favourable terms.

On a slightly different note, but airport expansion related. Isn't the runway more or less at capacity already in the morning and at other peak hours? So if further aircraft could be based at the airport, wouldn't they be restricted to departing before 6am or after 8.30am in the morning?

Yes they usually are.

The airport is limited to 18 million passengers due to planning permission constraints but as LLAL is now planning for a temporary solution to increase the figure to 21 million it will only be a matter of time before it is granted. The airport will then undergo alterations to grow the figure.

The issue is with the taxiway links to the runway and ATC. The taxiway links can be fixed with more turn offs, not sure about ATC though due to issues with London airspace.

The Runway itself isn't at capacity; if you have an aircraft waiting to depart and one to land continuously you'll achieve 40 movements an hour easily. The number of stands affect the capacity the most, plus taxiway restrictions and of course the outdated London airspace.

So with Ryanair having 6 based, Easy with 25, Thomson 2/3, Wizz 9 that means 43 stands plus the two for cargo. Is that correct? Maybe somebody in the know could confirm p!ease.

Talking of ATC in the London area, I have noticed on the Flight Radar 24 app, over the last year a far higher number of flights into Luton are completely avoiding the London area especially on their approach into LTN...

Any flights originating east of France seem to be kept away from French airspace and purposely funnelled over Belgium and the Netherlands, then over the southern North Sea and they don't seem to make landfall over the UK anywhere south of North Essex, usually around the Harwich to Ipswich area. Where Previously flights would approach from Kent and fly around the London area.

Flights to/from Spain, the Canarys and Portugal seem to be routed out towards to Oxfordshire and leave/enter UK airspace around the Isle of Wight.

Flights that do come over London from the south seem to be kept a lot higher and fly north of the airport to the likes of St Neots, Bedford and Biggleswade to around 10,000ft and then start the final decent from these areas.

I have to agree. Working over in the Hangar, I see how the works are 'progressing' on a daily basis and those appalling canopies are just the icing on the cake !
What a bloody mess it really is. I can only assume that those who have planned all of the LTN 'improvements' are all employed by GAL or HAL !

Does anyone know why the Tarom flights are always operated by YR-BGD or 'E, and not YR-BGA or 'B despite all four having the same configuration?

Arriving into the airport recently my thoughts were that the signage to the car rental transfer bus was non existent until you reached the specific bus stop outside and that there was a lot of bottlenecks / people standing around in the way (inside and outside the airport)

Another day with Essex sector restrictions (LTN and STN shared). 42 movements per hour throughout most of the afternoon.

Staffing issues I guess?

No idea. I'd say airspace congestion. It's been like that for last couple of days at least.

Does the TUI schedule for summer 2019 see the airline going back up to 3 based aircraft - 2 x 738, 1 x 757?

Another new destination starts Monday - TALLINN capital of Estonia operated by Wizz.