Routes from Ryanair: Alicante (3 weekly), Athens (3 weekly), Barcelona (daily), Bologna (daily), Cork (6 weekly) & Malaga (6 weekly).

Bologna and Cork are new and were unserved.
Athens served by Wizzair daily.
Alicante and Malaga against EZY and TUI.
Vueling might suffer on Barcelona, EZY also operate this route.

VY BCN no longer operates.

aax1 -

Sorry, my mistake. I knew it had reduced, but not that it has stopped.

e) diverts shall only be accepted for acft that have declared an
emergency

It's been that way since July 1st.

Also an increase in frequency by Ryanair to Vilnius.

Video report here Ryanair invests £155 million in Luton Airport | Anglia - ITV News

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-...herts-45287489

On the negative side Luton is some 11% lower than the next worst UK airport in the latest Which passenger survey.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/7086...uk-worst-2018/

New Ryanair flights at Luton
 

Safe, good chance of profitability, but ever so slightly dull

Ryanair
 

Routes are dull but certainly not the announcement - did anyone see this coming as very little speculation on this thread beforehand.

In a week American announced Philly - Dubrovnik and Delta Tampa - Amsterdam I suppose this should not be a surprise but how does this fit in with overnight parking come summer 2019.

Pete

Based aircraft
 

Not sure if it’s already been mentioned on here but Wizz have announced a 9th based aircraft from the end of this year as well

With the builders compounds going by November, which will free up 2 stands, Ryanair have grabbed their last chance to base more aircraft at Luton for what could be several years. Interestingly on the TV last night the airport person (sorry no idea who he was) said that Ryanair are tough negotiators and it has taken two years to get the deal. From the airports point of view maybe Ryanair with their higher capacity aircraft is a better option than another couple of low capacity easyjet 319's and that they wanted to get away from the Easyjet / Wizz dominance. On the other hand Ryanair might have been the only bidders.

Reading the airport passenger reviews makes for depressing reading particularly since the completion of the departure lounge where passengers still moan about the same things they have been moaning about at Luton for years. The number one hate seems to be the lack of seating and queuing. Well one thing is for certain, if they thought 2018 was bad then come back for 2019 when things will be worse with even more passengers. I see Luton as a chicken factory, passengers come in through one door, and are then processed and are then dispatched minus their feathers.

Come 2019 the only outstanding work regarding the 18 million passenger upgrade will be the new taxiway Foxtrot and the extension to the taxiway at the 26 end both of which have yet to be started. Other independent works include the CTA's second multistory, which will open in the Autumn of 2019 and the DART link that might open in 2021 although in my eyes it hasn't really got going yet. With the brand new dual carriageway needing to be dug up for the cut and cover tunnel it will be interesting to see how far past Luton Airport Parkway the traffic queues will be for next year when the extra passengers arrive coupled with the pending digging out of the tunnel route.

I have been around the airport since the 1960's and have watched every new build. The transformation can only be described as total. The only reference point is the old Britannia hangar which is now painted orange. Remembering the days even in the early 1990's when staff outnumbered passengers on a winters afternoon when the last flight of the day had departed.

I see Luton has been named as the UK's worst airport for the third year in a row by Which. I know these sort of surveys are always open to interpretation, but am I the only one to find the comment from a Luton spokesman that in their own survey, 70% pf passengers had been "happy" with their experience perplexing . To take pride in the fact that 30% of your customers are unhappy is extremely depressing.

A waterproof membrane is being laid out and covered up at the site of the second multistory while bore holes are being drilled and filled with concrete at the site of the new station,
https://i.imgur.com/HeT3sxI.jpg

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

Seating
 

With Boots in its new location in the departure lounge isn't the Est Bar is moving into the old Boots location? This should free up room for a large block of seats where Est Bar is now.

I know Ryanair press releases are always works of art, but how the devil are they getting off with having journalists lazily repeating that this is a £155m investment in an airport? :rolleyes:

If you ever needed evidence that this is a chancer's world... :ugh:

Think that is the cost of the 2 aircraft. The bull was the claim that these two aircraft will create 1,500 new jobs. Apart from the flight crew I doubt if hardly any new jobs will be created. All it will mean is that some of the support staff like baggage handlers might get a few additional hours added to their zero hour contracts.

Ref the above photos. As the station is underground the "bore holes" must be the first stage of creating a chamber that will be dug out. The station, while below ground, will not be fully enclosed but will have a cover, dare I say awning over it allowing natural light and probably rain to enter the platforms.

Wonder how the dual carriageway into the CTA will be affected if the road has to be dug up? Answers on a post card