LTN Pax Firgues
 

They are correct - why do you think there is something fishy ?
Go back a month to 29.02.20 and Luton was up 7% on the rolling year so March was well down so the new rolling year is 1.6%

Wizz Air sent an email that flights will resume:

With the terminal reopening at the end of the week it will be more of the same before it shut but after the lockdown started. Expect no social distancing when families see each other for the first time in a long while, no social distancing from staff, who seem to switch off or forget when they are at work. No social distancing by the baggage belts or when boarding the aircraft. The list is endless regardless of what the airport claims. Yes I have seen it all and it horrifies me.

This is the only public council building that will be open. No libraries, no leisure centres, no swimming pools, no schools, no community centres, no tidy tips, just the airport open for foreign travel.

Is Wizz asking passengers if their journey is essential? Is the airport asking the same question? Two cases of no is the answer to that.

I take it Spanish eyes you work at the airport. If you do you should raise your issues with your employer. They have a duty of care to you. It appears you are horrified by what you see. Ask your employer if you can take time off to recuperate as you appear deeply affected. These events affect people differently so it is nothing to be ashamed of if you are struggling.

No one wants the airport to be closed longer than necessary but there is a valid question to be asked when the country has been told to self isolate to reduce the length of the lockdown.

Airports and aircraft are not conducive to stopping the spread of viruses. They are the initial reason the U.K. got infected in the first place. Reopening Luton for financial gain will not be helping the economy in the long run as it will just help to prolong the pain for those businesses that remain closed.

The country has NOT been told to self isolate to REDUCE the lockdown period -Quite the contrary; The idea is the reduce the potential burden on the Health Service by an extended period of infectious risk however at a lower peak rate .

This is a political rather than health decision and the UK government only took this course at the last moment .

Hence the utter shambles of planning ensued.

There is some creditability to herd immunity however requires far more knowledge of the infectious processes and whether the mutations are close enough to reduce the risk of reinfection . COVID19 doesn’t seem to follow the rules on that With the current evidence available though and this IS a health issue of major concern.

I assume Wizz have a vaccine for every passenger? My bet is that they are operating flights with the biggest yield and load factors, so no refunds. That would mean operating empty A320s becomes profitable, compared to refunding those pax booked? Plus who knows what subsidies they will retain!

Most WZZ flights are Bulgaria and Romania - although there are others. Some pax will be VFR, some coming in for seasonal work, some returning home temporarily or permanently. I suspect loads will be reasonable. All crew and pax being told to wear masks.

There won't be any flights from Romania for next two weeks at least. Some governments are more sensible and ban flights.

There are some flights from Romania because the first Jet2 flight in weeks is over there right now bringing more farm workers into Stansted this afternoon.

These photos were doing the rounds in the newspapers showing farm workers heading out of Romania a couple of weeks ago. No social distancing here.

https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/148055

https://i.imgur.com/k4mywDf.png


https://i.imgur.com/PVO4bDm.jpg

First Sofia appearing on LLA arrivals board for tomorrow.

Second flight departure showing as cancelled but then it isn’t bookable until 17th May

W67702 to Skopje DEPART 09:30 FLIGHT STATUS Cancelled (NON OP)

Wonder if anyone told the airport?

https://www.lgcplus.com/finance/luto...ue-30-04-2020/

Good link but according to this council document only 7% of their income comes from the airport while they intend to spend £168 million in this financial year on mainly the airport and a planning application for new homes. I suspect most of that £168m will go on the next payment for the Dart but £47 million is down for the first payment of the T2 access road called Century Park. This road is costed at £124m and that doesn't include turning it into a dual carriageway.

https://www.luton.gov.uk/Council_tax...ax-booklet.pdf

Hi All. This is my first post. I'm normally happily watching quietly from the sidelines. But I'm interested in the reaction to the resumption of Wizz Air flights and I wanted to chuck in some points to the debate.

1. UK hasn't shut border
2. Passenger flights continue elsewhere LGW, STN and LHR and other UK airports
4. Government says "Do not travel abroad unless it’s essential..." but does not say you shouldn't travel at all. "If your travel is essential, see our guidance on international travel"
5. WHO guidance "Recommendations for International Travel" says travel restrictions ineffective (except at start of out break)
5. Despite the news stories, Wizz are only flying to a handful of destinations to start with and probably won't get into double figures for several weeks
6. Just because they will eventually fly to Spain and Portugal doesn't make the passengers 'holiday makers'
7. Passenger numbers likely to be extremely low
8. They will need to follow restrictions in the country they are travelling to eg. only Bulgarian citizens are allowed into Bulgaria and in Tenerife you will have to go to your place of residence for 14 days
9. As far as I understand it, Wizz will refund passengers where travel restrictions mean they can't travel, providing they booked for the lock down (although I stand to be corrected)
10.Airport workers are classed as Key workers "those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response" so one can assume airports are seen as a key industry?

Thanks for reading.

PS I wanted to back up some of my points with some weblinks but it won't let me because I've never posted before but you can google them.

Point 8. To be allowed entry into Tenerife currently you will need to be a resident (probably the same for the other islands and mainland Spain)

Many people have become residents of both countries due to Brexit so can live in Tenerife and are free to float between the two countries if they wish I would have thought.

As from 0.00 hours on 23 March travellers entry through the Spanish external borders is restricted. Only the following will be allowed entry: nationals and Spanish residents; residents in other EU countries or Schengen countries to get to their places of residence; holders of a long-stay visa issued by a Member State going to the latter; cross-border sanitary or elderly care workers; transport of goods; diplomats; and due to force majeure reasons when justified.

Has any decision been made around charges for the DART so as to start paying off the loans ? Will it be paid directly by passengers similiar to the bus and if so how much ? Or will it be added to the overall airport charges paid by airlines, and again how much ?

I was told it will be as it is now which is a bit disappointing. So either buy a through ticket or pay at the Dart.

Very hard to work out the length of time to pay the debt off

The target is 34% of all passengers will arrive by rail. 18,000,000 divided by 2 is 9,000,000 return journeys through the airport. This would mean 3,060,000 return journeys via Dart per year. Existing fare is £3.80 return. £225,000,000 / £3.80 = 59,210,526 return trips needed before interest and running costs. Divided that by 3,060,000 passengers per year = nearly 20 years.

BUT there are interest payments on the loans and running costs for the dart which runs into a few million for the first 5 years. Doppelmayr Cable Car is building the automated people mover for the project. It is also responsible for operating the system for five years with an option to extend this term by five more years. I think in reality 20 years could well end up being 40 years, which is why the airport operator said no to funding it and that is assuming the airport maintains 18m which it might not. Any extension to T2 would be a further cost.

The idea is that the next franchise holder will pay off the debt and will adjust their payments to LLAL accordantly so clearing the LLAL debt

TV crew was at Luton today probably unofficially as they stayed out of the terminal and took this using a zoom lens of the pier. Despite all the BS from the airport about social distancing this was the reality at Luton today.

https://i.imgur.com/WocY1u1.jpg

I read that according to Wizz, many passengers have to travel for work. A crafty worded statement that is massively ambiguous. Luton is certainly on a 'drive to the bottom', in fact, it is a lap ahead of any competition.

Has to be said that there does seem to be a whiff of xenophobia and snobbery from some of the posts on this forum and in the local media. Particularly from the good folks of Hertfordshire who couldn't wait to go running to JVS on Three Counties who's anti-airport bias is blatantly clear. Since when did anti-noise/anti-expansion campaigners become experts on the spread of infectious disease and current government rules?

Bottom line is they don't like where the passengers are coming from/going to.

Simon Calder, The Independent talking on ITV tonight: "I don't think Wizz Air is being remotely irresponsible. These are not in any sense holiday flights. People can't use them for business trips but they are going to provide a life-line for repatriation for essential workers for people with desperate family needs".
​​​​​​​

Due tomorrow

ZB3009 Tirana14:00

ZB.....Monarch revisited...Hmmmmm !!!

One also came in about a week ago

Simon Calder is just expressing his own personal opinion like everyone else and has come across in other interviews as someone who has not taken this threat seriously as it has curbed his free travel jaunts.

The head of Heathrow has been open and has said social distancing is impossible while Luton is in denial as yesterday’s photo posted here has shown.

Social-distancing at airports is 'impossible', says Heathrow boss https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52504183

As a nation we either want to get rid of this virus or we don’t and companies like Wizz are not helping as it just prolongs the pain.

I still find it amazing that it is other countries that make foreign travel difficult while the UK still has open access.

Wizz Air not exclusive to Luton at the moment Budapest - Birmingham this morning.

They will fly to anywhere they can. The next question is what will Easyjet do as they are meant to be starting again soon. Difficult choices but I suspect like most companies they will put their own interests first which is understandable.

Sorry LTNman I don't follow what are Luton supposed to be in denial about?

BTW Simon Calder is known as the "man who pays his way" and doesn't except junkets.

Be interesting if similar criteria is imposed on Easyjet - should they receive a gov dot uk bale out - as been imposed on Air France w.r.t. short domestic flights:

https://www.railjournal.com/passenge...ail-in-france/

That would kill LTN to both GLA and EDI if the French 1 h 15 min flight became a UK 1 h 30 m.

PS
I put this under Luton thread rather than Easyjet thread for no particular reason than I use (well used!) LTN GLA once a year at least.

--
Nick

The French government is very interventionist, and in France the state plays a much greater part than in the UK.

Maybe, but gov.uk is going to having a bigger say so in all matters when baling any concerns out - things have significantly changed in every respect, and any money will come with strings.

They said they could implement social distancing when clearly they cannot and this on a day with only 4 flights.

Wizz got a £300m 0.6% interest UK government loan and they are a Hungarian airline while Virgin Atlantic seems to be getting nothing. Didn’t read about any conditions regarding the Wizz loan.

The following is in the media in Tenerife, anybody confirm or deny this ?
UK’s DoT has confirmed after consultation with Wizz Air management that the airline has cancelled Tenerife flights until June at the earliest.

Where did they say LTNman ?

Wizz do not operate internal domestic UK flights of the short duration referred to.

That just might be the reason why such conditions was not put in ????

In any case, loans are different to baleouts.

Virgin operate neither UK short hauls nor operate from LTN. So irrelevant x2.