Temporary fencing is now coming down in front of pier b so I’d say we are a week or two away from opening

The builders compound on the Eastern Apron is now accessed from the service road where it disappears under the terminal.

The first of the two coffee shops is about to open landside.

Being a single terminal airport and with arrivals and departures now sharing the same concourse the airport is buzzing with people and has the feel of a major airport even though it is clearly not. It is quite remarkable how the airport is evolving and physically changing.

Do we know why they are digging a rather large trench down the side of the walkway next to the shelters? It’s a rather long detour if your coming off a bus

I have been also wondering why as well. The trench starts where the existing wall ends and looks like the concrete wall will continue as a curve and then at a right angle but I can’t believe it will be that long as it is half way to the drop off zone and if you are the wrong side of it it’s a long walk to get around it.

Another airport mystery is what is happening to the 5 drop off lanes that are under construction. Each lane appears to be a cold de sac with no exit route. Yes once a car enters it has to turn around and cross the path of cars entering the next cold de sac.

Looks like a pending disaster to me unless I am missing something.

With new TUI flights to below places confirmed for 2019, does that mean the Luton base is going back three aircraft next year?

Antalya
Enfidha
Funchal
Herakilion
Herghada
Thessaloniki

Any clues from any TUI insiders is this will be an all 737 base or could they sneak in a 757?

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Still surprised after the demise of Monarch 6-7 months ago, none of the other LCC have jumped on and started filling the capacity Monarch left behind on a few of the bread and butter routes.

For example Alicante, Malaga and the Canaries... While easyJet fly the routes, they don't seem to have increased capacity compared to last year.

Ryanair have bases at Alicante and Malaga, so could start routes with equipment from these cities.

The Canaries has always been a weak route network from Luton, while you can get to all four of the main islands with Ryanair, they only serve them all twice weekly and easyJet to Tenerife and Lanzarote thrice weekly. Surely this must be an opportunity to increase to at least daily. Many other UK airport boast daily or several times daily flights to the islands.

FNC will be operated weekly this Summer by TUI

I doubt the Summer 2019 program has been fully confirmed and its unlikely the 757 will be dropped due to the need to rotate aircraft through for weekly A checks

I think the exit route will be at the Eastern end of the drop-off lanes, where the exit route is now. It also looks like they are moving the airside fence about a road-width further east in that area too.

I'm pretty sure Lanzarote was only twice weekly with EasyJet last winter, so they added an extra weekly flight. I agree with you though, I am also surprised we haven't seen a bigger increase filling Monarch capacity.

The airports aim to to increase the percentage of passengers arriving by train from the current 17% to 36% which is what Gatwick has.

Also info on what is involved in building the line.


Doppelmayr Cable Car: "DART Cable Liner" London Luton Airport, UK (2018)

Most of the slack created by the sad demise of Monarch appears to have been taken up by STN and to a lesser extent BHX, where Jet2 and to a lesser extent Thomas Cook.

Construction update
 

The 5 drop off lanes appear to be cul-de-sacs. I am clearly missing something here as I can't see how this will work.
https://i.imgur.com/TiYyB4h.jpg

A pedestrian route appears to be under construction but until the subway opens traffic will not only grind to a halt as cars try to exit each entrance to the drop off lanes but passengers will have to cross the ring road which ground to a standstill in I think 2016 when a temporary crossing was put in for the short term car park. The drop off area handles around 20 times the amount of passengers the short term car park did so I can't believe this is the solution so I will hold back judgment.
https://i.imgur.com/yZm4jYe.jpg

This gap will eventually be the subway.
https://i.imgur.com/8rnqNbv.jpg

This will be the raised road over the subway
https://i.imgur.com/FuPwjaK.jpg

Trenches don't normally interest me but this is no services trench, as the ground has also been removed around the foundations to the walkway. This ends up by the existing wall that fronts the terminal.
https://i.imgur.com/wsKcQIO.jpg

Don't forget Primera out of STN have started on a few of the MON Spanish routes

Summer strikes

https://buyingbusinesstravel.com/new...r-strike-chaos

I see the annual Baku airlift has begun - Titan B767 today, Azerbaijan tomorrow.

30th they all return 2 x 767-300 & 787-8

Giles Davies wrote: Monarch had 3,243 slots in S17. WizzAir has increased their slots in S18 by 3,548. I think that's your answer.
The "bread and butter routes" are probably oversubscribed,particularly with Jet2 and Primera expanding at STN.

The whole reason Monarch went bust was over capacity in the market and not enough demand to meet supply driving down the yield for the airlines to the point where Monarch went under.

You can bet all the others felt the pain too, so it's hardly surprising with one player gone the others trim capacity and try and boost the yields to something more sustainable

When Monarch closed, it seemed to me that the other carriers were happy to let the seat count drop. This seat reduction would increase the value of their own seats for zero outlay on equipment and crews. Given the current financial climate, it would be the safe option.

Probably the only airline in history to have gone bust with an increase of passenger numbers.

Well NO actually...