think you’re imagining things mate, nothing on here, checked on a couple of devices

I saw that too and wondered where it went !

Could have sworn that at 0300 today there was a post by LTNman foretelling of bad news concerning LLA to be revealed this morning.


I saw that post as well.

Perhaps a ‘late night / early morning’ post that was deleted by the writer ?

It was about the airports/ the councils future expansion plans. I now seek a second source for information, as thinking about it overnight the info could be read in two different ways. What was clear last night is not so clear today so the post was pulled due to a lack of certainty. I don't want to state a fact for me to then be wrong but whatever happens there will be a delay.

Thank you LTNman. It would be nice if LBC for once laid out it's new plan clearly and without ambiguity.

Spotted these two articles? Is this what you mean...

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/c...ck-21-05-2020/
https://www.hertsad.co.uk/home/e-edition (Page 2)

The council has released a statement that the DCO that was meant to be submitted in June now won’t be. The reasons given are totally phoney as the council would choke if they had to be honest yet the title of the document is London Luton Airport and Covid -19. https://futureluton.llal.org.uk/

Of course the court case at Heathrow also had nothing to do with the decision or the fact that passenger numbers at Luton have been decimated so they can’t afford the existing loan payments for projects started.

I was thinking yesterday that the council had pulled the scheme but now I am thinking the council is looking at how to save the project after this statement, which I was only made aware of today.

But LTNman the big question is, what is so important about your airport that you have been up all night allegedly posting spurious information about LTN at 0300, when the rest of the world is in bed sucking it's thumb and can't be asked? I think we should be told! A little light relief is called for!!

1/ I didn't post anything spurious, only the fact that some might view this announcement as bad news and that it would come out today which it did.
2/ It is not my airport, it is owned by the council.
3/ It was not posted at 3am but the night before.
4/ I slept all night
5/ I woke up at my normal time and pulled the post as I wanted further information. In fact I could have just left it as the post was correct.

Thankyou for responding LTNman and keep up your informative posts.

Had a look at those two steel towers today as I drove past to do some food shopping. 99% certain they are the lift shafts for the remote platforms, as per the artist impression. They haven’t moved but are now getting side walls.

Tick, tock, a local borough council is about to financially implode O'Clock?

As for the reserves, that rainy day has arrived and it is of biblical proportions. Maybe Noah can help the local Labour party? Match 2 quid for another 2 quid.....

As a non-too-local local, I have lost touch with what is happening here. Given all the construction going on, what is now being delayed, ie the scope of the DOC?
These remote platforms, are they at the airport or Luton Parkway?
They sure like the tedious word ' sustainable' don't they.

The remote platforms are my description of the railway station platforms at Parkway that need a footbridge to get passengers from the train to the Dart station

The DCO is linked to the expansion of the airport outside its existing boundary. If a DCO is granted the council will look for a new operator to build the infrastructure and then run the airport on a new concession.

In the meantime the council are funding the Dart to the existing terminal and intend to fund the road to the second terminal on the pretence it is an access road to a business park. The issue is that the road would only be viable if it serves an expanded airport as it has been costed at £124m

While we good residents of Luton await the emergency budget, and then live with the fall out of such, the DART is looking increasingly like a luxury we can ill afford at the moment and with the DCO being kicked into a corner have no real demand for.

What we don't know is how deep the council has gone down the financing route. Whether it is being borrowed in stages and contracts let in phases or if we are up to our neck in it. Answers of any kind are hard to come by. Direct face to face questions to LBC members are brushed aside, council meetings concerning the airport exclude the public (as they have been for years now) and the considerable section of the local population who rely on the airport directly or indirectly for their income are left in limbo.

The council must now swallow their pride. Suspend as far as possible any further development of the DART, put it into a care and maintenance state and concentrate on getting the airport back where it was before the current situation. When the numbers demand it, get it finished.

Thank you very much for that. Cheers.

I think the project is too far down the line to be stopped now and by stopping it and then starting it again will add to the final bill.


The opening date was meant to be the Spring of 2021 but that has been moved to summer 2021. The airport was claiming it was on schedule but looking at the time line for completing different parts of the project it is clear it is running late and might not open until 2022. When projects run late so the costs go up, which will mean even more money will need to be borrowed. We might never find out the final cost as it will be hidden away.


The project is remarkable for the speed of when it was first announced to the world and the actual start date. Consultations were held only 3 1/2 years ago in November 2016. Three months later a planning application had been submitted with a full set of drawings to the Council by the Council and then swiftly approved and work was actually started in August 2017, just 9 months after the consultation. Compare this to other major projects that take years to start. This is what happens in Communist China where opposition is crushed and the state does what it likes. The state in this case being the Labour controlled Council. Saying that, I don't think there was any opposition, as it was projected as taking traffic off the roads, the airport already owned the land on the route and no one asked any questions about who was going to pay as it was all free LLAL money except LLAL is the Council.


With the plans in February 2017 showing the track taking a 90 degree turn inside the CTA, so the terminal station lined up nicely with the public park next door, it was obvious a planning application for airport expansion was on its way. In December 2017 the Council announce plans to double the size of the airport after denying there were any such plans. A phoney consultation was held that showed 4 locations for the second terminal. One location was south of the runway yet work had started on the Dart which needed the terminal to be inside Wigmore Park so it lined up with the Dart track.


The big question is why is the council spending £225m for a Dart link to the existing terminal when the terminal has reached capacity without it. Yes it is taking 2 buses off the road that shuttle all day between the station and the airport but that can't justify spending £225 million. This project is being funded by the council taxpayer yet they will get nothing out of it as very few council taxpayers will ever use it. Of course those in the know understand that the Dart was never about serving the existing terminal but serving a second terminal and this project smooths the wheels of the DCO. The Council is also funding the £124m link road that will allegedly serve a proposed business park except most of the business park sits on the same land that is required for airport expansion. Again this road ,if started soon, will smooth the DCO application and the airport concessionaire who is expected to build the terminal 2 infrastructure will get a free road and £225m knocked off the price of getting a Dart link from Parkway Station to its new terminal.

Chuckles loudly from my bear pit! Superb analogy.

Taxiway Foxtrot closure due to parked aircraft extended until 23/6.

It happens wherever you have a first past the post elections. Fortunately in Scotland both our local and national elections use (different) forms of PR, so it is easier to get rid of useless people.

Changing the runway designation.

I wonder what the impact will be on movements/passenger figures with the news from easyJet today?

Potential double whammy for Luton with its HQ at Luton. Will they now build their new HQ when cutting jobs?

Wizz
 

Seems Wizz have jumped on the EasyJet announcement by announcing flights from Luton to Milan, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Malaga and Palma

The council has a long history of giving the airport operator rebates on concession income which is then passed onto airlines to encourage new services. I believe this ended when the airport reached capacity last year.

Wizz now has not only the airport operator over a barrel but also the Council. Who is paying who now comes to mind.

Wizz Air will launch new routes to Palma and Malaga on 1 July, with Spain getting ready to reopen to international tourism.The budget carrier’s new five-times weekly Palma service, and daily Malaga service, will be followed by the launch of a twice-weekly Luton-Fuerteventura route on 3 July.

Luton-Lanzarote flights, meanwhile, will get under way on 27 October. Its Palma service is yet subject to UK and Spanish government restrictions being lifted.

Wizz will launch previously announced new Las Palmas (4 June) and Faro (16 June) routes over the coming weeks.

Think Positive!
 

LTNman we are both old-school and whilst you come across as pessimistic I am your opposite in that I am an optimist. I recall many years ago when EasyJet’s concession for some of its routes ended. LBC stood its ground and subsequently EasyJet continued with growth at LTN. This current economic downfall is temporary but I believe that once passenger levels start growing once more, so will LTN. One thing I hope we agree on is that LTN has a fantastic catchment area which is reflected by a phenomenal growth these last few years. I was very saddened by the demise of Monarch but Wizzair UK more than doubled Monarchs loss. Equally if any airline were to reduce its presence at LTN there are other airlines who would be more than happy to take over those routes. The likes of Jet2 should never be ruled out because I constantly hear good things about that airline that makes me wish they operated from LTN. Over the decades- Britannia was the dominant airline, then came Ryanair, then came EasyJet and possibly today is Wizzair but history dictates there could be someone else in the future if the current airlines rest on their laurels!

Just goes to show where some see risk others see opportunity. In ordinary times this would end in a bloody price war, so will be interesting to what happens this year.

Luton certainly does have a massive catchment area which from memory is only second to Heathrow. Of course what is happening now will only last a matter of time but at the moment the airlines will be driving hard bargains not that many apart from Wizz will be looking for much growth. Rolling passenger total for 12 months time is anyone's guess but I am thinking it will be below 10m when 12 months of post Covid 19 figures are included in part due to an impoverished Europe.

Wizz
 

From 31 July 2020, Wizz Air's new Milan Malpensa to London Luton route will become 2x daily with morning and evening flights:

MXP 0710-0800 LTN (Daily)
MXP 1900-1950 LTN (Daily)

LTN 0840-1125 MXP (Daily)
LTN 2030-2315 MXP (Daily)

Wizz look to be loading a few more routes at Salzburg today. Could this be the next destination?

Could be loads of spare slots at Gatwick and be very tempting to move some Wizz routes south of the Thames, just like easyJet did in the early 2000s? With routes that BA, Norwegian and Thomas Cook possibly available, dafter things have happened to Luton over the years.

I understand that Jet2 wanted to open a base at Luton, but were not offered dedicated areas of the terminal, so they opted to bin Luton and talk to Stansted.

Which sounds like Luton fanboy talk for Jet2 had discussions with multiple airports but Stansted were best able to fulfil their growth ambitions. Just saying.

The world is a different place from when the Council first announced plans to double the size of Luton. 2 1/2 years later and it is all starting to fall apart not helped that they cannot afford the interest payments on loans if they build the access road to T2. As stated before a dishonest reason was given for the halting of the DCO.

https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/tr...ndemic-2868954

Not wanting to seem to be a spotter but Wizzairs latest A321 NEO HA-LJA on it's way today. Demand for it at the moment or just most efficient (cost effective) aircraft.

any reason for being a prick?

Any reason for using that kind of language on a public forum?

prick
/prɪk/

verb

1. 1.
   make a small hole in (something) with a sharp point; pierce slightly.
   "prick the potatoes all over with a fork.

That's a 320.

Very true, their first A320NEO though, only delivered 29/5, other NEOs being 321s.
The was the news storey https://www.ifn.news/posts/wizz-air-...irbus-a320neo/