I think that unless EZY equally expands at LTN in 2018, they could find themselves falling behind Wizz!

In the last couple of days Indigo the owner of Wizz has just ordered a further 140 + Airbus A/C to expand W6.

I think 2018 is going to be a very interesting year at LTN with sustained growth and possibly U2 basing several more A/C.

Indigo divested itself of Wizzair shares last summer. https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/n...take-for-317mn

Wonder why turn offs onto H are prohibited unless authorised by ATC. Making aircraft roll out further isn’t going to increase runway flow:confused:

I always thought the 08 taxiway extension was done first to improve departures/congestion when 08 in use......

I was wondering that as well but it might just be a case of wait and see as there does not seem to be any logic in restricting access to Taxiway Hotel for arrivals.

Airbus still seems to think Wizz are part of the group LINK

Am I missing something but it looks like it's turn offs onto taxiway Charlie that needs ATC approval not taxiway Hotel.

During the summer on several occasions when 26 was in operation a/c were held at D1 and then told to backtrack via Charlie for departure due to congestion and missing a slot when alpha had four or five waiting for departure.

Maybe they don't want biz jets trying to get off at Charlie if an a/c is holding at D1.

Edit- when I first looked at the NOTAM I am sure it only stated Charlie , didn't notice Hotel had been added. hence the box added in the chart.
Now I am confused as it doesn't seem to make sense for Hotel.

Me too, why not just marked as HS Hotspots, surely taxiway lighting will not be illuminated unless authorized by ATC.

Wingtip clearance between an aircraft vacating and holding at HOTEL 1 must be very close to an aircraft holding inbound at BRAVO 5! The runway is effectively blocked if an aircraft holds inbound at CHARLIE 1 and cannot progress any further northbound.

The original plan saw the new taxiway extension require the removal of the current fire station, but you will notice that the BRAVO extension runs much closer to the runway than taxiway ALPHA does.

Unless I am missing something, Indigo not listed here. Shareholders Major WIZZ Wizz Air Holdings PLC including Fund and Institutional

Any aircraft coming off via Bravo would have to give way to any aircraft vacating at Hotel as Hotel 1 could not be used as a holding point from that direction without blocking the runway. I guess that would mean that every aircraft using Bravo would have to be told to hold before B5 just in case the next landing aircraft used Taxiway Hotel.

SunExpress
 

The airline have now added Bodrum- W flight from Antalya

Now makes 9 flights a week (2017)
Ankara - 2 weekly
Antalya - 2 weekly
Bodrum - 2 weekly
Gaziantep - 1 weekly
Izmir - 2 weekly (3 weekly)

More competition for flights going towards Turkey

Buster/Goldeneye -

Indigo Partners sold off 10.7 million ordinary shares in Wizz earlier this year but retain 44.8 million convertible shares. The recent Airbus order was promoted as an order by Indigo for their group of airlines, including Wizz.

Thanks LGS6753.

Titan to Chamberry
 

Does anyone know what aircraft will be used for the weekly flight?

I was also interested in knowing which type of aircraft but can’t find this detail anywhere, none of the booking sites give this information, if you were to go by last years ZT331/ZT332 schedule it will be a mixture of B757, B737 and A321 but I could of course be totally wrong.

The aircraft schedule is:

ZT331 departs Stansted at 08:10 arriving Chambéry at 11:00
ZT884 departs Chambéry at 12:10 arriving Luton at 13:00
ZT883 departs Luton at 14:40 arriving Chambéry at 17:30
ZT332 departs Chambéry ar 18:30 and arrives Stansted at 19:20

Hopefully someone else will have better luck !

Monarchs slots can now be sold, after winning at the court of appeal.
Bring on the bidding war...

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mo...-idUKKBN1DM1TM

Monarch’s administrators win airport slots battle

Just seen this...

What does this mean for Wizz Air's expansion?

Has Wizz used Monarch's old slots to aid this newly announced expansion or have they gained the slots from the expansion of the airport and the new taxiways being built, which allow for more take off and landing slots?

Be interesting to see who the slots are sold to and if Wizz can't obtain them.

Unless they have already agreed a deal in principle with the administrators to buy them, pending this decision from the courts.

The only additional information I have managed to find is that the company chartering the aircraft is called - wait for it - ski flights.com. Their website gives details of timings and flight numbers which we already know but no information on the type of aircraft.
Who would have thought some years ago slots at Luton would end up with a bidding war.

New Wizzair routes
 

As Larnaca and Bratislava are shown as 10.00/10.15 am departures, I suspect the later as this is outside the MON slots which were used previously.

If so, once the 4 slots are taken up and come on-line Luton stats will once again be pushing upwards more steeply.

The Wizz expansion is an additional 2 aircraft despite the claims taking the total to 5. Any spare capacity through the expansion of the airport from new stands and taxiway improvements would be the preferred method. Last resort would be to buy slots. What happens if no one wants to buy them? Could the administrators hold back Luton's growth?

Also remember Thomas Cook is basing an aircraft next summer as well.

Thomas cook based aircraft is filling in the empty slot from TUI.

Yes, should be noted that TUI are -1, with the aircraft going to ABZ

Surf Air relocating ops to LCY as early as next month..

More here on Surfair

Membership airline Surf Air to shift London base from Luton to City Airport

Find unless they want to fly/return on Saturday afternoon/evening or after 22.00 hrs.

Surf Air
 

The ZRH flight normally gets back at 21:30, say 10/15 mins less flying time -but the notorious holding in the North Sea, perhaps SENs new FBO facility might get some business.
Still it frees up a 07:25 departure for someone else, did they sell that for £1M :yuk:

So what happens if the low cost operators at Luton don't want to buy the ex-MON slots? Do they revert to ACL (after how long?), or can MON's administrators retain them indefinitely?

That is a good question and as we are in new legal territory, who knows. Do KPMG sweat it out whilst keeping on their very small (but highly paid ex MON Pilots) and obviously their fees or cut and run within weeks? Maybe HMRC will push for sooner rather than later as a major creditor?

In order to possibly foresee any possible outcome, is there anyone in this forum who can actually confirm what slots- with times for both departures and arrivals, Monarch held?
There has been others in here asking a similar question. As an example, I have recalled ZB flights totalling 22 movements at LTN in a 24 hour period. Then as I quoted several days ago, during this winter, Monarch on average would have operated 9 movements a day. I do not know anything of slot allocations but someone must?

I have a feeling that there is a done deal here in what is known as `At the door of the court`. I am still ploughing through the reasons, for what is a very odd decision handed down almost immediately after submissions. The CoA normally reserves judgement and goes away to consider the result.Courts are notorious for handing down perverse and inconclusive decisions, yet ACL are not appealing. Seems leading Counsel were changed for this hearing as well.Hmm time will tell and as you say Pabely maybe HMRC have had a say in this..Somebody certainly has.

I did read that Wizz had, prior to this ruling, made a deal to take the slots from KPMG/Monarch. I wondered if such a deal allowed access to enhance their UK AOC application, some knowledgeable staff/pilots, to also be transferred?

Video of the work on the new taxiway here.

London Luton Airport taxiway work to increase capacity - BBC News

Slots are filed for a 757 Sat 1305/1435.

That's brilliant cj241191, thanks for the update. Always nice to see and hear the 757.

This coming week it will be announced which airlines will be buying Monarchs former slots. EasyJet, IAG, Norwegian Shuttle and Wizzair appear to be the main contenders. I do assume the LGW slots will be the first to go so will be interesting.

This coming week!

It was already announced this morning that IAG have purchased the former Monarch LGW slots for £60m.

Surely wizz will be top of the pile of they want 2 more aircraft to make 7? Easyjet or Blue Air for the others?

I have found no news to confirm IAG having bought all the LGW slots and paid £60 million!

Although I previously wrote that IAG have purchased the former Monarch LGW slots it seems from these reports that,

From the BBC

British Airways owner IAG has secured take-off and landing slots at London's Gatwick airport that used to belong to Monarch, reports say.
Monarch collapsed in early October and thousands of its customers had to be returned on government rescue flights.
But its administrators, KPMG, won a court appeal last week for the right to sell Monarch's slots at Gatwick, the UK's second busiest airport.
IAG has won the majority of Monarch's Gatwick slots, PA and Reuters reported.
EasyJet, Wizz and Norwegian had also been keen to acquire the slots.
Monarch's take-off and landing slots at Luton airport are also being auctioned off. Together, the Gatwick and Luton slots are expected to be worth about £60m.
IAG declined to comment on the reports.

From ch.aviation

British Airways Boeing 777-300ER British Airways Boeing 777-300ER © British Airways
6 hours ago
IAG International Airlines Group has won an unspecified number of Monarch Airlines' London Gatwick slots following submissions from various operators including Thomas Cook Group.

According to the Press Association news agency, the deal saw the British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) parent acquire the "majority" of the defunct carrier's slots at London's second busiest airfield.

Monarch was last week granted possession of its Gatwick and London Luton slots following a UK Court of Appeal ruling overturning a previous High Court decision. Creditor firms now stand to recuperate some of their dues as a result of the appeal.

Other operators that Reuters had indicated to be interested in Monarch's London slots included Norwegian UK, easyJet, and Wizz Air.

Monarch Airlines collapsed in early October amid debts of GBP466 million (USD621.44 million) bankruptcy administrators KPMG said in their first creditors report.

However, according to the Sunday Times, with only GBP600,000 (USD800,000) available to repay unsecured creditors, KPMG has since concluded that the cost of repaying them all would exceed this amount.

“As the secured creditors will likely suffer a shortfall, there is no real prospect of a return to unsecured creditors in any of the administration companies,” the KPMG report said.

Despite the doom and gloom, the Financial Times has reported that Monarch’s employees, the carrier's preferential creditors, are expected to receive 100% of the monies owed to them. A total of 1,858 staff at Monarch Airlines and Monarch Travel Group were made redundant in early October.

Although it states that IAG have bought an unspecified amount of former Monarch slots at London Gatwick it doesn't quote the exact price paid by IAG but we can assume it is close to the £60m that they were supposedly worth.

So is it an auction or is the figure set by the administrator?

What happens to the slots if they don’t meet a reserve price?

Does this mean that say a new airline to Luton that is given a slot to operate a service and then fails then has the right to sell that given slot?

Will the airport start to sell slots to add income to their landing fees?

Monarch slots
 

Is Norwegian seriously a contender for the Monarch slots at Luton, has there been any suggestion that they are interested in a Luton operation?