Hi LTNman

Just done a bit of rummaging about and it appears it is the LLAOL (the airport), submitting the application for the transit link to the airport and not the council.

The council are providing the funding as a loan.

It also states in the planning application that it is a "2.2km twin guideways mass passenger transit (MPT) system", so I think people including myself referring to it as a train service are mistaken.

It also states in other documents Ive read, the building contractors would be announced in October, but that doesn't seem to have happened yet.

I am imagining the system with be something similar to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Innovia_APM

The platforms at Parkway will be around 38m long excluding buffers and other non tracked sections which is twice as long as the 18m Volvo bendy buses.

Looking at the timescales work proper starts May next year with work on the central station starting next June but that can't be started now until the new multistory is finished and opened so I would say that part of the project will be delayed by a year. The station has a 59 week build and when complete work is meant to then start on the systems and equipment so the whole project could already be a year behind schedule.

I would be surprised if a Bombardier solution would not be used as they supply LGW & STN and MAD (from a airport operator point of view).
Platform length would suggest the ability for 3 Car people movers as current models have the following specifications
Size : 12.8 metres (42 ft) length, 2.8 metres (9.2 ft) width, 3.4 metres (11 ft) height.

Hi LTNMan, at Birmingham there isn't any spare rolling stock as they are pulled by cables along the track. I can't imagine it would be easy to change those over.
I do remember when it was sponsored by bmibaby, you had to listen to advertising through most of the short trip.

According to the tender the the work will take 3.5 years and the yearly running costs will be £2 million

London Luton Airport Mass Passenger Transit System..

London Luton Airport Mass Passenger Transit System.

A fond farewell to runway 08 and 26 next year. Will become 07 & 25 and probably coincide with opening of runway parallel.

LTNman new location required !

First Monarch and now the runway designation. Life will never be the same:{

The airport is now closed overnight from midnight until 05:30 till December 2nd to allow the taxiway extension to be joined to the runway.

There is a further closure period planned in January if the work isn’t finished.

Yes...DHL noted @ STN this AM

I've been looking at WizzAir's 2018 summer schedule.

They seem to have dropped Split, but are planning to operate 360 flights per week - roughly the equivalent of a 17-aircraft base - on the following routes:

Bosnia - Tuzla 2pw
Bulgaria (30) - Bourgas 3, Sofia 17, Varna 10
Czechia (10) - Brno 3, Prague 7
Georgia - Kutaisi 2
Hungary (41) - Budapest 31, Debrecen 10
Israel - Tel Aviv 4
Kosovo - Pristina 2
Latvia - Riga 14
Lithuania (25) - Kaunas 7, Palanga 4,Vilnius 14
Macedonia (7) - Ohrid 2, Skopje 5
Moldova - Chisinau 5
Poland (97) - Gdansk 19, Katowice 20, Lublin 7, Olsztyn-Mazury 3, Poznan 12, Szczecin 3, Warsaw 23, Wroclaw 10
Romania (82) - Bucharest 21, Cluj-Napoca 19, Constanta 4, Craiova 7, Iasi 7, Satu Mare 2, Sibiu 5, Suceava 5, Timisoara 7, Tirgu Mures 5
Serbia - Belgrade 3
Slovakia (6) - Kosice 3, Poprad-Tatry 3
Slovenia - Ljubljana 4
Ukraine - Kiev 4

17 countries, 41 destinations.

Wizz

I wouldn't read too much into that just yet.
They only appear to have loaded flights for one LTN based a/c for S18 at the moment.
There were three based in S17

Maybe they are awaiting further slots before loading the full programme.
IIRC Split was an early morning departure along with Varna and Bourgas in S17

Out of curiosity what is the latest on the Monarch HQ.
Is it now empty and shut ?

If I didn’t know Monarch had gone belly up I would never have guessed when looking at their HQ. The building is still occupied, the lights are still on and there are plenty of cars in their car park.

@LG6753

Nice bit of work, looking into all of that...

Looking pretty similar to this year, so no huge surprises there. But by documenting this makes you realise how impressive Wizz are at LTN!

Shame about Split if it has been dropped, and I suspect it has as the other summer seasonal flights to Tuzla and Ohrid are on sale, so there is no reason why Split wouldn't be on sale if the route was going to operate.

@Falcon666
On the two occasions I flew to Split this summer, it was roughly a 1-2pm departure and arrived back at Luton around 8pm, and was operated by a Kaunas based aircraft and crew.

Wizz Air had the Luton to Split market to itself until this Summer when easyJet also started on the route, and suspect this might be a likely cause. Also easyJet are operating the route daily next summer when it was 3x weekly this summer, and Wizz was 3-5x daily.

I've used the route numerous times, and Wizz use to charge some pretty handsome prices in the summer months when they had the route to themselves, and this year prices were noticeably cheaper, once easyJet were biting at their heels.

As the Split route is primarily used by Brits going on holiday, I guess easyJet have the upper hand as more of a household name, than Wizz does, despite them operating it for the last six or seven years. Also easyJet have opened up routes to Zadar and Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast too this year.

Wizz doesn't seem to have had much luck with Croatia, having dropped routes to Zagreb, Osijek and Dubrovnik in recent years...

Giles
Thanks for that , I stand corrected.
Delving a bit more deeply shows the following for the three based a/c for S18

A/C 1. O6.00 dep Constanta 1,3,5,7. Varna 2,4,6.
A/C 2 07.50 dep Kaunas. Daily
A/C 3. 07.30 dep Ljubljana 2,4,6,7. Olystyn 1,3,5

I was looking for much earlier departure times as S17 had 05.50 and 06.00 times.

There is the possibility that the Kaunas flight does originate from elsewhere before departing at 07.50 am but I can't see it at the moment.

So all three based have schedules loaded??

Looks like Easy will have Split to themselves

Those Luton departures for aircraft 2 and 3 are late leaving. This summer 2 Wizz were leaving at 5:45 while the 3rd was gone by just after 6. If this schedule is correct they are now hanging around until the first wave is already starting to leave on a return leg.

Looking at today’s departure board they have a departure at 5:45 and another one at 6:05 so seem to be down to 2 based aircraft for the winter.

The first wave of Wizz flights start to arrive at around 07:00 so the 07:30/07:50 departures are likely to be these and not the based aircraft.

The AGM of Wizzair takes place today, would not be surprised to see some new routes announced. The shareholders must be pleased with the shares trading at £34 having originally opened at £17.

Sorry, got my facts wrong only half year results today, profits up but shares down £2 just goes to show you can't please everybody.

Wizzair Turkey
 

Wizz have reportedly bought a 49% stake in Borajet and it will be rebranded Wizzair Turkey. So probably expect new routes to Istanbul etc in the near future.

According to the BBC both Wizz and Easyjet are after Monarch’s Gatwick slots. Wonder what impact this would have on Wizz’s Luton operation if they got a foothold into Gatwick?

I remember when Easyjet first started to expand into Gatwick as Luton took a hit.

This could be massive with the new international airport coming on-line in less than 12 months

Wizz tried Gatwick a few years ago but did not last long, we shall have to see what happens. Regarding the Turkish situation yes I can see Istanbul from Luton in the not too foreseeable future.

Using Google Translate

As the first and only regional airline company in Turkey, Borajet Airlines has been operating since 2010 and has been sold to SBK Holding by Yalçın Ayaslı, a businessman who survived in the last days of last year.

Sezgin Baran Korkmaz owns SBK Holding, which lasted until April, when he passed away, and then announced that he was stopping flights with a sudden decision to enter the restructuring process.

Since April 24, 2017, only airline passengers who are flying in the framework of an agreement with Turkish Airlines have begun to talk again about changing hands.

According to AirportHaber, Borajet aspires to a foreign airline. It was alleged that WizzAir's negotiations with Borajet officials, one of Europe's leading low-cost airlines, had been positive and 49 per cent of the company would be taken over by the Hungarian airline.

FLIGHTS SHOULD MAKE AIRBUSES

According to the same report; the management of the company will be created by WizzAir. Also all team planning and recruitment processes will be carried out by WizzAir again.

On the other hand, after the share transfer process, in the first stage 5 airbus A321 aircraft will be included in the Borajet fleet in January 2018. After the merger, low-cost transport will be carried out in the name of Wizz Air, not Borajet.

It is stated that the company will use Sabiha Gökçen Airport as its hub and will carry out both domestic and international flights from here.

It is stated that the future of Borajet will be evident after the negotiations with WizzAir, which was declared its foundation in 2003 and continued its flight activities since 2004.

28 CENTERS HIGHLIGHTS

Wizz Air, which carried out its first flight on May 19, 2004, now has flights to hundreds of destinations from 28 different centers.

The company, which has 86 airplanes, carries its flights with Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. Wizz Air, one of Europe's youngest flags, has an average age of about 4.

9 MONTHS MORE THAN 21 MILLION PASSENGER TRANSPORT

The company's shares, which were offered to the public on February 25, 2015, are traded on the London Stock Exchange.

The company traded under the WIZZ brand in the London Stock Exchange has more than 3 employees.

In January-September of 2017 according to the average 9-month period of 91.84 percent of the average flight rate of Wizz Air, this process served a total of 21 million 201 thousand 589 passengers.

So the next question is how quickly the slots get allocated after a period of applying for them?

KPMG have been granted a Judicial Review by the High Court regarding the slot issue so it might be a little time yet.

Wizzair Turkey
 

If it is to be based at Gökçen, then that is the Asian side of Istanbul, does that not produce additional problems in route rights?

October passenger figures just been released. A total of 1,405,751 passengers used the airport in October up 2.9 per cent on October 2016. Rolling 12 month figures are 15,763,162 up 10.8 per cent. Over 72,000 passengers travelled between Luton and Amsterdam in October 2017.

Re Wizz schedule.

Looked at w/c 9/7/18 and it clearly shows that apart from the 06.00am (VAR, 2,4,6 CND 1,3,5,7)flight, the next departure is 07.30am (LJU 2,4,6,7 SZY 1,3,5)

These two look the based a/c but can't see a third at the moment.
Still more to come??

October.
An increase is an increase...however the loss of MON is readily apparent in the figures now & if the repatriation flights are stripped out would be in negative territory.
A clearer picture this month.

The terminal seems very quiet this month, in fact the airport is a nice place to visit

I would think only the Gatwick slots have value so the court case is about Gatwick

Reallocation of slots
 

So far MAG are pleased that Greybull have lost the right to sell slots at Manchester. The ruling for both LTN and LGW are to be appealed by KPMG.

Until the matter has been dealt with, LTN can not reallocate those slots but I’m sure they will be snapped up, eventually.

With respect..."snapped up,eventually" is an oxymoron isn't it?.

The media have certainly made this very Gatwick centric, but interestingly, the only airport to make a submission as an 'interviening airport' were MAG on behalf of MAN, so one wonders why they in particular went to court to get the slots released, they wouldn't have done it for the craic.

Wizz operate Bucharest-LGW.

And Luton but up until 17th November Monarch administrators fight to keep hold of lucrative landing slots

Interesting to note that this figure is now higher than Copenhagen at its peak

Monarch slots
 

Does anyone know how many slots Monarch has at Luton?

I remember several years ago up to 22 movements in one given day, that being on a Sunday.

Oxymoron
 

With my deepest respect Southside Bobby, this issue with Monarch and the outcome in relation to airport slots-is a 'drama'!