Next summer we have Euro 2020 with England playing three games at Wembley in June and then the two semi-finals and finals also at Wembley in the first two weeks of July. So for example if Spain and Germany meet in the final all London airport's airports are going to have logistical problems, except of course if England play Wales in the final! Also there will be a large executive jet movement with the Wimbledon men's final taking place on the same day and the Open Golf Championship at Royal At George's in Kent commencing in the middle of following week as is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone! Some planning there.
Regarding the cap I think some fudge will occur letting the figure go over the limit - only temporary mind!!

Construction update
 

Parkway Dart station is receiving its top floor. Are the side walls going to be attached to the roof or will there be a gap like at the terminal station?
https://i.imgur.com/WSB5ILo.jpg

Taken a couple of days ago. The Gateway Bridge is now on jacks with Thunderbirds 2 heavy movers being assembled (remember Fire Flash?)
https://i.imgur.com/HcNFGrL.jpg

Taken today. All is ready for the big move that starts tonight. The bridge never did get painted so will have to be done after installation.
https://i.imgur.com/su9Oral.jpg

With one lane closed on the dual carriageway from the Ibis this was the queue this morning. From 8pm tonight until Monday morning the airports main access road will be closed as will the A1081 to Hitchin in both directions. The diversion route is torturous with many junctions and a retail park so expect massive delays back to the M1.
https://i.imgur.com/C2LBEji.jpg

Above the Dart maintenance area
https://i.imgur.com/xnrOQ0J.jpg

Forgive a dumb question: I have not paid too much attention to this bridge but now, on closer viewing of the new pic: It look slike the 'swoop' on the top is just that - a swoop for decoration? When viewed from a distance, I had presume that was a functional part of it - but it looks as if they are going to put a whole chunck of concrete close to the flight path for ... what?

Yes it is for decoration. You have to remember the airport operator isn't paying for this otherwise it would have been a standard bridge made out of second hand matchsticks. The council has borrowed the £225 million for the Dart and wants something fancy. The ski slope will be back lit with LED lighting so it looks nice at night. Oh and the high bit is by the approach lights end which isn't even a full set of lights due to the road below and is less than half the length of the 26 end. If you look carefully the approach lights are on the left so the top of the bridge will make an interesting obstacle. I always thought approach lights were designed to snap off if hit by an aircraft.
https://i.imgur.com/bk9mrSL.jpg

Reminds me of Fireball XL5, or am I going back too far for most?

There you go, it has two uses. Wonder if the UK Space Agency is chipping in
https://i.imgur.com/Z7bC8IZ.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ac700d9ab1.jpg
The major infilling earthworks continue near holding point A1.....quite a bit of the original stockpile has been used!

They are so short of earth to level the ground for expansion they need to dig their own quarry and import 4 million cubic metres of soil. The average dumber truck carries 7 -10 cubic metres so that is 400,000 trips from the quarry and 400,000 trips to the quarry. As for the cost to move so much earth they're not saying. Not that I want airport expansion but the ground south of the runway is level with the runway but apart from a small chunk of land is outside the towns boundary so the council is not interested. That woodland that can be seen to the left which has tree tops level with the runway would be buried.

Changing the subject the Dart bridge is 26.5m high

Passenger numbers
 

G-AOVS soldiers on.

SLAE getting quite a bit of press now, or so I am told. Dart cost a conservative £225m, any idea how 18m pax per year will pay this back plus interest?

How can a Town Hall borrow this and might it affect the services that LBC provides to the folk that own the airport, the Council Tax payers?

https://stoplae.org/council-leader-t...port-spending/

https://stoplae.org/the-dart-link-lu...g-225-million/

The aim is to get 34% of those 18 million to use the Dart. With a return fare costing £1.90 each way on the shuttle bus the maths don’t really add up as the debt will have yearly interest charges applied of several million and then there is the maintenance contract cost to consider plus any staff employed on the Dart. No wonder the rail operators, network rail and the airport operator all said no to any funding leaving it to the council to fund.

SLAE certainly ask the questions the council would prefer not to answer. The Council have always claimed their plans for a second terminal was not the motivation for spending £225 million for the first part of the Dart to T1. They claim it is being built to reduce traffic but fail to mention that if a second terminal is built, using their own figures, road traffic will increase by 70% despite the Dart.

There is no doubt the Dart is a game changer for Luton, as the shuttle bus is a nightmare, but seeing the airport has reached capacity without it why are they spending £225 million? Its construction is all about serving a second terminal but the council is so dishonest they will never admit the truth.

The Council is planning to spend £460 million on the Dart, the new airport access road, and the DCO that is required for a planning application to government. Bad news for the council if they don’t get planning permission as it will have been money wasted.

Eh? Are you saying they will have to apply to themselves and that they might refuse to grant permission for their own scheme?

This time they can't vote through their own planning application via its dodgy planning committee as it is so big it is of national significance so it will go to government to decide. Which government no one knows which must be a major concern to the council but they are too far down the path of spending money to turn back.

They voted through the Dart and the access road by putting in separate planning applications as they were sneaky. There is an argument that the road and the Dart should have been part of the Development Consent Order.

I guess they will be hoping for a Conservative win.

LBC is a Labour controlled Council, bazzare isn't it!

26.5 metres high
 

Dannyboy - If Luton Council were to suddenly find itself with a £1bn pile of cash, I imagine all kinds of corrupt people would suddenly appear wanting a slice. Think of the poor man who wins the lottery, goes crazy with spending, burns through their winnings in 10 years and finds themselves broke at the end of it. The current structure of receiving a more modest annual dividend keeps Luton council from getting too excitable

Norway used to be a poor country until the 1950s. They had the self control to set up a trust fund for all the money from oil/gas - so that when the North Sea reserves run out, there would be something as a fallback for their economy. There are other countries in the world where Govt has been spendthrift with oil revenues and it all ended up in tears.
I doubt Luton councillors hoping for re-election have the same degree of self-control - and even if they do, Westminster might find itself looking greedily at the cash with its own ways of squeezing LBC

That’s an interesting observation. Need a sideways view to confirm from the closed footpath. Hard to believe it would be jutting out.

If the airport had been sold off years ago I cannot see a situation where the council would allow one of the towns major parks to be built on for the benefit of that company.

Seems the airport operating company is claiming the glory when it is LLAL/ the council that is paying for it.
Might explain why Lee Baker Street has observed it is sitting below the runway
https://i.imgur.com/7T3cHQg.jpg

Traffic looks rather bad. Wonder how many people will miss their flights this weekend. The jams keep moving with different stretches of road affected and in different directions.
https://i.imgur.com/PndhpxZ.jpg

Luton Pax
 

The figures on the Luton site must be just terminal pax and the figures from the CAA show the rolling 12m as at 31.10.19 - well over 18m !

Nov 18 = 1,127,219
Dec 18 = 1,274,297
Jan 19 = 1,156,359
Feb 19 = 1,191,996
Mar 19 = 1,352,217
Apr 19 = 1,554,456
May 19 = 1,660,158
Jun 19 = 1,697,198
Jul 19 = 1,808,237
Aug 19 = 1,897,129
Sept 19 = 1,733,012
Oct 19 = 1,643,040 - Luton's number / CAA not out yet

18,095,318

I suppose Luton will only get additional noice complaints this week because of the NATO summit in Watford this week and unusual routings to avoid temp exclusion zones, but then again some additional works for the FBOs

19:30 A1081 reopens ahead of shedule 👌

Plans to turn the TUI HQ into 184 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom flats.

Well I can understand TUI wanting to move out with a planned noisy terminal close by. I guess their staff car park will become part of T2?

Yes their overflow car park, which is on the edge of Wigmore Park, would disappear as a dual carriageway would pass through the middle of it.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that they relocated out of London to Wigmore House but I guess it is a few years now.

So where and when is the TUI HQ relocating ?

TUI have a large office presence in Coventry afaik.

Staff have been told they have 7 years on their lease so they are not going anywhere yet detailed plans have been submitted to LBC for change of use together with a set of conversion plans

The move

The Turkmenistan Airlines inaugural flight does not appear on the Arrivals board for today. However, a quick search finds it listed at Gatwick, but "Cancelled".
Today shows a Fly Bosnia flight live - despite that they retrenched to Sat/Sun only a few weeks ago.

Looks like the Polish and Czech Governments are using Luton to access the NATO summit. A Czech A319, together with Polish G550, E195 and C295 are here, or on the way.

Someone at the airport has stated the airline is not coming to Luton as they have not secured a slot.

Quick check on FR24 confirms Fly Bosnia operate on Tue and Sat, has been that since the clocks changed on 27th Oct.

The EU lifted its ban on the airline on 17th October, with flights to Birmingham and Frankfurt having resumed early last month.

I drove under the new bridge yesterday. That 'swoosh' going no where is a heck of a lot of money for a gesture. The extra weight alone would have increased costs and complexity of the foundations. I sure hope the pax who will ultimately pay for it are impressed ...

Turkemenistan
 

BHX has seen a Turkmenistan flight for months and they are still not taking bookings despite the fact that flights are loaded into GDS and visible.

The last I heard the revised target was Friday 13th for a restart date.

Pete

It has yet to be back lit with lots of blue LED's which come later. The Dart is not costing the airport operator anything as they would not chip in nor has there been a passenger levy to cover the £225 cost. Yes it is all down to the towns council tax payers as the council has already admitted there will be a cut in the dividend to cover the loans the council has taken out.

Should I complain when I have been so critical of how the airport operator cuts building cost to the bone with its cheap construction and materials?. With the council funding the Dart money is no object.

Comments from the architects with artist impressions

https://www.knightarchitects.co.uk/p...irport-gateway